Sarobacala albopunctata (Semper, 1901)
 (formerly known as Capnodes albopunctata)
BOLETOBIINAE,   EREBIDAE,   NOCTUOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley


(Photo: courtesy of CSIRO/BIO Photography Group, Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, University of Guelph)

The adult moth of this species has brown wings each with marginal and submarginal arcs of white spots. The forewings also have white spots along the costa. The wingspan is about 3.5 cms.

The species has been found across south-east Asia, including

  • Borneo,
  • New Guinea,
  • Philippines,

    and also rarely in Australia in

  • Queensland.


    listed as Capnodes albopunctata    ,
    monochrome drawing by Georg Semper lithographed and printed by Werner & Winter in
    Die Schmetterlinge der Philippinischen Inseln, Volume 2 (1901), Tafel LXII, fig. 9,
    image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by Smithsonian Libraries.

    This species: Saroba albopunctata, is superficially indistinguishable from Saroba niphomacula in habitus photographs. Such photos taken in Australia are more likely to be of Saroba niphomacula.

    Further reading :

    Frank Pierce,
    Record of Saroba albopunctata in Cooktown,,
    Butterflies and Other Invertebrates Club,
    Metamorphosis Australia,
    Issue 92 (March 2019), p. 23.

    Georg Semper,
    Die Schmetterlinge der Philippinischen Inseln,
    Reisen im Archipel der Philippinen,
    Volume 2 (1901), pp. 587-588, No. 543, and also Plate 62, fig. 9.

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    (written 21 January 2019, updated 15 September 2026)