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
Thought to belong to the family Noctuidae, subfamily Noctuinae.
The caterpillar pictured here was found on the Acacia kempeana (Witchetty Bush). When first observed and being photographed, the caterpillar launched itself at us, missing us and landing on the ground.
As we continued to photograph it, you could see it moved like a “looper caterpillar”. We then tried to relocate it back onto the bush, and it spun a piece of web, hanging down.
The Noctuidae is a large family of moths in the superfamily Noctuoidea, with over 1,000 genera and over 11,500 species worldwide (and many undescribed species). A very diverse family is very diverse in form and biology, making it hard to defined on adult or larval morphology. It is in the common group name of Owlet Moths, Cutworms, Armyworms.
- Scientific classification
- Kingdom: Animalia
- Phylum: Arthropoda
- Class: Insecta
- Informal: Pterygotes
- Order: Lepidoptera
- Unranked: Ditrysia
- Superfamily: Noctuoidea
- Family: Noctuidae
- Subfamily: Noctuinae
- Tribe:
- Apamenini
- Hadenini
- Genus:
- Agrotis Ochsenheimer, 1816
- Buciara Walker, 1869
- Diarsia Hübner, 1821
- Ectopatria Hampson, 1903
Footnote & References
- Noctuinae, Atlas of Living Australia, https://bie.ala.org.au/species/https%3A//biodiversity.org.au/afd/taxa/57d97766-3ba4-4098-8e55-3f52b44f801b
- Cutworms and Dart Moths (Subfamily Noctuinae), ausemade, iNaturalistAU, https://inaturalist.ala.org.au/observations/213298630
- Noctuidae – Owlet Moths, Cutworms, Armyworms, The Caterpillar Key Fact Sheet: Noctuidae, authors Byrne, CJ & Moyle, DI (2019), https://keys.lucidcentral.org/keys/v3/the-caterpillar-key/key/caterpillar_key/Media/Html/entities/noctuidae.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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