Parotis marinata (Fabricius, 1784) (one synonym is Parotis psittacalis Hübner, 1831) SPILOMELINAE,   CRAMBIDAE,   PYRALOIDEA

Don Herbison-Evans (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley

(Photo: courtesy of Graeme Cocks, Townsville, Queensland)

The adults of this species are green, with brown edges to the wings, and a vague variable narrow pale sub-costal streak on each forewing, and variable white streaks on the costa and hind-margin of each hindwing. There is also a vague dark spot near the middle of each wing. The abdomen has a black tuft at the tip.

(Photo: courtesy of CSIRO/BIO Photography Group, Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, University of Guelph)

The legs are white with brown joints. The moths have a wing span of about 3 cms.

drawing by Jacob Hübner, listed as Parotis psittacalis,
Neuer oder rarer nichteuropäischer Gattungen, Zuträge zur Sammlung exotischer Schmettlinge,
Volume 3 (1825), Plate 90: fig. 523,
image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by Smithsonian Libraries.

The species is found over Asia, including

New South Wales.

underside, drawing by Jacob Hübner, listed as Parotis psittacalis,
Neuer oder rarer nichteuropäischer Gattungen, Zuträge zur Sammlung exotischer Schmettlinge,
Volume 3 (1825), Plate 90: fig. 524,
image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by Smithsonian Libraries.

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Further reading :

Johan Christian Fabricius,
Entomologia Systematica Emendata et Aucta,
Volume 3, Part 2 (1794), p. 209, No. 298.

Jacob Hübner,
Neuer oder rarer nichteuropäischer Gattungen,
Zuträge zur Sammlung exotischer Schmettlinge,
Volume 3 (1825), p. 30, and also Plate 90: figs. 523, 524.

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(written 13 December 2015, updated 5 September 2019, 2 October 2020)