(one synonym : Gonitis vitiensis Butler, 1886) Jute Looper CALPINAE, EREBIDAE, NOCTUOIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
(Photo: courtesy of Kell Nielsen, Gold Coast, Queensland)
This Caterpillar is mainly green, with black spots, and a pale brown head. It has reduced prolegs, and progresses in a looper fashion.
It is a pest on :
and has also been found feeding on :
The caterpillar grows to a length of about 3 cms.
It pupates in a sparse cocoon between a pair of leaves on the foodplant.
The adult moth of this species is brown with a variable pale sinuous pattern and often a central white spot on each forewing.
The moths have a wing-span of about 4 cms.
The species occurs in south-east Asia and the south Pacific, including:
as well as in Australia in
Taxonomists are divided over whether this species belongs in Anomis or Gonitis.
Further reading :
Ian F.B. Common,
Moths of Australia,
Melbourne University Press, 1990, fig. 44.14, p. 449.
Peter Marriott,
Moths of Victoria - Part 8,
Night Moths and Allies - NOCTUOIDEA(B),
Entomological Society of Victoria, 2017, pp. 12-13.
Buck Richardson,
Tropical Queensland Wildlife from Dusk to Dawn Science and Art,
LeapFrogOz, Kuranda, 2015, p. 125.
Francis Walker,
Noctuidae,
List of the Specimens of Lepidopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum,
Part 13 (1858), pp. 1003-1004, No. 12.
caterpillar | butterflies | Lepidoptera | moths | caterpillar |
(created 6 February 2010, updated 30 June 2012, 9 May 2019, 15 August 2020)