Notocrypta waigensis

Notocrypya waigensis (Plotz, 1882)
(one synonym: Plesioneura proserpine)
Banded Demon
HESPERIINAE , HESPERIIDAE

Don Herbison-Evans ( donherbisonevans@yahoo.com )
&
Stella Crossley

(updated 3 May 2008)

(Photo: courtesy of Martin Purvis, Sydney)

The Caterpillar of this species is long, thin, and pale green, with a brown head. It feeds on various plants in ZINGIBERACEAE, including:

Australian Native Ginger ( Alpinia caerulea ), and

Australian Native Cardamon ( Hornstedtia scottiana).

It lives in a tube made out of a rolled leaf joined by silk at the edges.

It pupates in its tubular shelter.

(Specimen: courtesy of the Macleay Museum, University of Sydney)

The adult butterfly is black with a broad white band across each fore wing, and a few white dots near the fore wing apices. The wing undersurfaces are the same as the upper surfaces. The wing span is about 4 cms.

The butterfly bears a remarkable similarity to some of the (unrelated) day-flying Arctiid moths, for example:

Nyctamera amica.

The species is found in

New Guinea, and also

Queensland in Australia.