Lily Caterpillar Moth - Spodoptera picta
Family Noctuidae
This page contains pictures and information about Lily Caterpillar Moths that we found in the Brisbane area, Queensland, Australia.
- Body length 20mm
- The moth has a wingspan of about 40mm, brown in colour with a pattern on the fore wings. The hind wings are silvery white.
- The caterpillars are known as Lily Caterpillar. They feed on garden plant Spider Lily Hymenocallis littoralis.
- The caterpillar is brown in colour with three thin yellow lines along its body. There are a row of black dots run along each side of the yellow lines. The caterpillar feed on leaves, flowers and fruit of garden plants.
- We did not understand why they are called Lily Caterpillar until we found many of them feeding on lily leaves. Pictures were taken on Apr 2007 in Botanic Garden.
- On Jan 2009, Sherlock in Yeppoon sent us email and advised that "We have a 4 year old common Spider lily that this year has suddenly gone bad and in slowly removing and dissecting found inside literally hundreds of the caterpillars and big handfuls of a match head size granula, either more eggs or food (actually they are the waste from the caterpillars). This is all down in the centre of the plant just above ground level."
- Mar 2009
- Reference:
- 1. Spodoptera picta (Guerin-Meneville, [1831]) - Caterpillars of Australian, by Don Herbison-Evans & Stella Crossley, 2008.
- 2. Northern Territory Insects, A Comprehensive Guide CD - Graham Brown, 2009, (Spodoptera exempta).
