(Photo: copyright of Rob de Vos)

The adult moth has black forewings each with a broad irregular diagonal white band, The hindwings are white with broad black margins. The body has alternate black and yellow bands. The moth is frequently seen flying during the day. The wingspan is about 4 cms.

underside
(Photo: courtesy of Graeme Cocks, Townsville, Queensland)

The species has been found as various subspecies around the orient, including :

as well as in Australia in

The moths differ from those of Nyctemera secundiana in having a much larger white area on each hindwing. The range and DNA barcode are sufficiently similar to that of Nyctemera secundiana to suggest that they are two races of the same species, or even ecological variants of the same species. This cannot be decided until they have been more studied.

Further reading :

Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Dechauffour de Boisduval,
Faune Entomologique de L'Ocean Pacifique,
in M.J. Dumont d'Urville:
Voyage de Decouvertes de la Corvette l'Astrolabe,
Division 7, Part 1 : Lepidopteres (1832), p. 200, No. 5.

Ian F.B. Common,
Moths of Australia, Melbourne University Press, 1990, fig. 43.18, p. 434.

Edward Meyrick,
On the synonymy of some species of Nyctemera,
Entomologist's Monthly Magazine,
Volume 23 (1886) pp. 15-16.

Buck Richardson,
Tropical Queensland Wildlife from Dusk to Dawn Science and Art,
LeapFrogOz, Kuranda, 2015, p. 16.

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(updated 14 August 2012, 20 September 2025)