Alice Springs Desert Park
ASDP Butterflies & MothsBanksia Moth – Caterpillar Caper White Butterfly Chequered Swallowtail (Papilio demoleus ssp sthenelus) Day Flying Moth / Mistletoe Moth Heliotrope Moth (Utetheisa pulchelloides) Noctuinae (Caterpillar) Processionary Caterpillar
The Heliotrope Moth (Utetheisa pulchelloides) is also known as the Salt and Pepper Moth. Often seen flying around during the feeding on flowers.
A colourful moth with front wings that are red, brown and black dots on white background. We found this moth flying around in Alice Springs, during the Central Australia summer.
It is found across the Indo-Australian region including Borneo, Hong Kong, China, New Zealand, Papua, Seychelles, most of Australia and Tenerife. The adult moth has an extensive migratory flight ranges, reaching some of the most remote oceanic islands, such as Henderson Island and Ducie Island. With its vast range, it is not surprising that there are a number of sub-species.2
The caterpillar of this moth, has sparse grey hairs, are black with orange spots and broken cream lines along the body. They feed on Heliotrope Heliotropium europaeum and Echium plantagineum.
One of the identifying features of Utetheisa pulchelloides is that the forewing is white with five interrupted scarlet bands with a series of black spots between them, along the hind margin of the fore wings and the tornus. There are however, some variation when identifying U. pulchelloides.
Check out our page on Fauna | Insects | Moths | Rattlepod Moth (Utetheisa)
- Scientific classification
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Arthropoda
- Subphylum: Hexapoda
- Class: Insecta
- Informal: Pterygotes
- Order: Lepidoptera
- Unranked: Ditrysia
- Superfamily: Noctuoidea
- Family: Erebidae
- Subfamily: Arctiinae
- Tribe: Arctiini
- Genus: Utetheisa
- Species: Utetheisa pulchelloides
Footnote & References
- Many thanks to for ID to Tony Eales and Iskander Kaliananda, member of Entomology Australia “Invertebratology”, https://www.facebook.com/groups/507004496955277/
- Heliotrope Moth (Utetheisa pulchelloides), iNaturalistAU, https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/taxa/125231-Utetheisa-pulchelloides
- Utetheisa pulchelloides Hampson, 1907, Atlas of Living Australia, https://bie.ala.org.au/species/https://biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/3853fe16-ec36-44da-8fd8-2f9fe53e0170
- Utetheisa pulchelloides Hampson, 1907, Heliotrope Moth, Coffs Harbour Butterfly House, http://lepidoptera.butterflyhouse.com.au/arct/pulchelloides.html
- Heliotrope Moth – Utetheisa pulchelloides, Brisbane Insects and Spiders , https://www.brisbaneinsects.com/brisbane_tigermoths/HeliotropeMoth.htm
ASDP Butterflies & MothsBanksia Moth – Caterpillar Caper White Butterfly Chequered Swallowtail (Papilio demoleus ssp sthenelus) Day Flying Moth / Mistletoe Moth Heliotrope Moth (Utetheisa pulchelloides) Noctuinae (Caterpillar) Processionary Caterpillar
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