Magpie moth

Nyctemera amicus

Description:

Approximately 35mm across; black-brown wings with single white band; tightly banded yellow and black abdomen; narrow, medium length, tapered, feathered, black antennae

Habitat:

On old gazebo rug in suburban back yard.

Notes:

First shot shows how well the moth lined itself up with the carpet pattern. Common. The caterpillar looks like this... http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/161...

1 Species ID Suggestions

Jacob Gorneau 11 years ago

Magpie Moth

Nyctemera amicus Nyctemera amicus

9 Comments

Mark Ridgway 11 years ago

Thanks Adarsha.

Adarsha B S 11 years ago

Nice spotting Argy!

Jacob Gorneau 11 years ago

:-) No problem. I understand the feeling. ;-)

Mark Ridgway 11 years ago

Thanks again J. Sorry not concentrating here. Must get some sleep.

Jacob Gorneau 11 years ago

Argy, I think this is Nyctemera amicus, not Nyctemera secundiana, which has brown wings and no fringing on the bottom forewing, whereas Nyctemera amicus does. Also, in the links, you can see that there is more yellow than black on the banding on the abdomen on Nyctemera amicus than on Nyctemera secundiana.

Mark Ridgway 11 years ago

Thanks J. I thought I'd seen this guy before.

Jacob Gorneau 11 years ago

Argy, could you add this to my mission, "Moths of the World?"
http://www.projectnoah.org/missions/8841...

Jacob Gorneau 11 years ago

Beautiful moth! I love how it lined itself up on the carpet. There are 20,000 to 30,000 moths in Australia. In North America, there are about 13,000.
Please check these links:
http://eol.org/pages/397687/overview
http://v2.boldsystems.org/views/taxbrows...