Nyctemera annulata
species of moth
Nyctemera annulata, the magpie moth, is a moth of the family Erebidae. The species was first described by Jean Baptiste Boisduval in 1832. It is endemic to New Zealand and found in all parts of the country.
Description
The magpie moth's "woolly bear" caterpillars are around 35–38 mm when fully grown and predominantly black with lines of red down its sides and back, blue spots and tufts of hair on each segment. Its liking for the introduced ragwort causes its caterpillars to be sometimes misidentified as those of the cinnabar moth which was introduced as a biological control for ragwort. By contrast cinnabar caterpillars have smooth bodies with alternating yellow and black rings.
The adult moth has black wings with white markings on both the forewings and hindwings. The forewings have two white spots that are more elongated while the hindwing only has a single spot near to the centre; the wingspan is 35–45 mm. The thorax and abdomen of the moth are black with bands of orange. The magpie moth is diurnal which, coupled with its colourful markings means it is often mistaken for a butterfly.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Nyctemera annulata” is species of moth. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Nyctemera, annulata and species, not as a finished interpretation.
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The phrase “species of moth” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 3, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1763923. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1832.
Current terminology should not be projected backward without checking the classification used when the underlying evidence was created. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Nyctemera annulata” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.