Stictoptera cucullioides

Stictoptera cucullioides Guenée, 1852
(one synonym: Steiria variabilis Moore, 1882)
STICTOPTERINAE, EUTELIIDAE, NOCTUOIDEA

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

(Photo: courtesy of Neil Hewett, Cooper Creek Wilderness, North Queensland)

This Caterpillar is brown with pale stripes, has an orange head, and has a little orange mark each side of the eight abdominal segment. The caterpillar is a pest on

Purple Mangosteen ( Garcinia mangostana )

and has also been found feeding on :

Ironwood ( Mesua species), and

Poon Trees ( Calophyllum species),

all in CLUSIACEAE.

The caterpillar feeds on the foliage of its foodplant, feeding nocturnally,and hiding during the daytime. It festoons its food tree with silk threads.

It pupates in a dense cocoon covered in detritus in the ground debris at the base of its foodplant.

(Photo: courtesy of D.H. Fischer, Sabah, Borneo)

The adult moth has very variable patchy brown forewings with scalloped margins. The hindwings are white, each having a broad brown margin. The wingspan is about 5 cms.

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

The species has been found across south-east Asia and the south Pacific, including

and Australia in:

male?
drawing by Herbert Druce, listed as Steiria variabilis,
List of Lepidoptera Heterocera collected by Mr C.M. Woodford at Suva, Viti Levu, Fijian Islands,
Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 1888, Plate XIII, fig 3,
image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library,
digitized by Natural History Museum Library, London.

female?
drawing by Herbert Druce, listed as Steiria variabilis,
List of Lepidoptera Heterocera collected by Mr C.M. Woodford at Suva, Viti Levu, Fijian Islands,
Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 1888, Plate XIII, fig 4,
image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library,
digitized by Natural History Museum Library, London.