Taxonomic Information
Agrotera Schrank, 1802 species known from India.
Agrotera basinotata Hampson, 1891. Indian subcontinent. TL: Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu.
Agrotera barcealis (Walker, [1859]). India: Sri Lanka
Agrotera discinotata Swinhoe, 1894. India: Meghalaya (Cherrapunji: TL).
Agrotera effertalis (Walker, [1859]). Sri Lanka (TL).
Agrotera scissalis (Walker, [1866]). TL: Java, Indonesia. India: Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Arunachal Pradesh, West Bengal.
Agrotera nemoralis (Scopoli, 1763). Andaman Is.
Photo Gallery and Species Biology
Agrotera basinotata -
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Separating basinotata and discinotata (based on OD, Hampson, Pyralids of Borneo and Bold Systems images (some of which are definitely incorrectly identified).
Agrotera basinotata: head is rufous; abdomen purplish-fuscous at extremity. Forewing purplish-fuscous; hindwing purplish fuscous, yellow at base. Dist: Punjab; Bombay, Nilgiris, Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka, India (Kerala, Assam, Meghalaya), Burma vide Pyralids of Borneo.
Agrotera discinotata: Forewing grey, rather than purplish-fuscous. hindwing entirely pale grey; no purple fuscous. Prominent dark-edged rufous discocelluar lunule with orange line on it and diffused dark marks beyond it between veins 5 and 2. Dist: Bhutan, Khasis.
Effectively, hindwing color is distinctive for discinotata and S. India populations are likely to be all basinotata.
| State | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | No date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andaman and Nicobar Islands | |||||||||||||
| Andhra Pradesh | |||||||||||||
| Arunachal Pradesh | |||||||||||||
| Assam | |||||||||||||
| Bihar | |||||||||||||
| Chandigarh | |||||||||||||
| Chhattisgarh | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Dadra & Nagar Haveli | |||||||||||||
| Daman & Diu | |||||||||||||
| Delhi | |||||||||||||
| Goa | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Gujarat | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Haryana | |||||||||||||
| Himachal Pradesh | |||||||||||||
| Jammu and Kashmir UT | |||||||||||||
| Jharkhand | |||||||||||||
| Karnataka | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Kerala | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Ladakh UT | |||||||||||||
| Lakshadweep | |||||||||||||
| Madhya Pradesh | |||||||||||||
| Maharashtra | 1 | 2 | |||||||||||
| Manipur | |||||||||||||
| Meghalaya | |||||||||||||
| Mizoram | |||||||||||||
| Nagaland | |||||||||||||
| Odisha | |||||||||||||
| Paschimbanga | |||||||||||||
| Pondicherry | |||||||||||||
| Punjab | |||||||||||||
| Rajasthan | |||||||||||||
| Sikkim | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Tamil Nadu | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Tripura | |||||||||||||
| Uttar Pradesh | |||||||||||||
| Uttarakhand | |||||||||||||
| West Bengal | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||||||||
| Total | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 4 |
Agrotera basinotata Hampson, 1891: Castanopsis spp. (Fagaceae), Syzygium nervosum, Syzygium aqueum (Myrtaceae), Lagerstroemia microcarpa, Lagerstroemia parviflora, Lagerstroemia speciosa (Lythraceae), Melastoma malabathricum (Melastomataceae), Pavetta indica (Rubiaceae) (Robinson et al. 2010).
- OD: Agrotera basinotata Hampson, 1891. Ill. typical Spec. Lep. Het. Colln Br. Mus. 8: 137, pl. 155, f. 13. Text at https://archive.org/details/illustrationsoft08brituoft/page/137/mode/1up?view=theater. Plate at https://archive.org/details/illustrationsoft08brituoft/page/n186/mode/1up?view=theater
- Hampson, G. F. 1896. The Fauna of British India including Ceylon and Burma. Moths, Vol.4. Taylor & Francis, London. Pyralidae 594 p - 287 figs. Pg. 266, #4794.
- Sivaperuman, C., Shah, S.K., Raghunathan, C., Chandra, K. and Venkataraman, K., 2012. Nine New Records of Moth from Andaman and Nicobar Islands. In Biological-Forum An International Journal (Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 23-26). Agrotera posticalis Wileman, 1911 reported from Andaman Is.
- Chen, K., M. Horak, X. Du & D. Zhang. 2017. Revision of the Australian species of Agrotera Schrank (Lepidoptera: Pyraloidea: Crambidae: Spilomelinae). Zootaxa 4362 (2): 213–224.
- Mally, R., Hayden, J.E., Neinhuis, C., Jordal, B.H. and Nuss, M., 2019. The phylogenetic systematics of Spilomelinae and Pyraustinae (Lepidoptera: Pyraloidea: Crambidae) inferred from DNA and morphology. Arthropod Systematics and Phylogeny 77 (1): 141-204.
- https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/417719-Agrotera-basinotata
- http://www.jpmoth.org/Crambidae/Pyraustinae/Agrotera_basinotata.html
- http://www.pyralidsofborneo.org/index.php?basinotata
Note: Chen et al. (2017) consider the nemoralis group to include Agrotera basinotata, Agrotera nemoralis, Agrotera posticalis and Agrotera discinotata. Agrotera posticalis Wileman, 1911 reported from Andaman Is., nemoralis is extralimital, while basinotata and discinotata are found on mainland India. It is likely that discinotata is found only in the NE India, while the peninsular Indian species is basinotata. See Similar species for identification notes.
Page citation
Anonymous 2025. Agrotera basinotata Hampson, 1891 – . In Sondhi, S., Y. Sondhi, R.P. Singh, P. Roy and K. Kunte (Chief Editors). Butterflies of India, v. 3.9. Published by the Indian Foundation for Butterflies. URL: https://www.mothsofindia.org/agrotera-basinotata, accessed 2025/04/30.