Black & White Owlet

Alfred Philpott described the larva of this species as follows:

Length, 13 lines; dull whitish; dorsal line of indistinct darker colour; subdorsal very faint; lateral stripe more pronounced; many minute specks of colour; head pale-brownish, with darker markings; dorsal surface of first thoracic segment darker.

Meyrick described the adult of this species as follows:

Male, female. — 37 mm. Head whitish, mixed with reddish-ochreous above, with two blackish transverse lines on face. Palpi whitish, externally somewhat mixed with reddish-ochreous and black. Antennae whitish, in male moderately pectinated. Thorax and abdomen grey mixed with white and black, collar mixed with reddish-ochreous, and with a transverse blackish line, outer edge of patagia blackish. Legs ochreous-whitish, suffusedly mixed with blackish. Forewings moderately dilated, costa slightly sinuate, apex obtuse, hindmargin waved, rather oblique, rounded beneath; pale ochreous, towards costa irrorated with dark fuscous and whitish, in female more whitish; lines slender, dentate, obscure, dark fuscous; first anteriorly whitish-margined, second posteriorly white-margined on lower half; spots hardly perceptible; a slender black sinuate streak from base to middle, margined beneath rather broadly with dark ochreous-brown to first line, terminating beneath a rather broad posteriorly dilated dark ochreous-brown discal pat …

This species is endemic to New Zealand. I. paracausta is found locally in the central North Island, is widespread in the South Island and can also be found in Stewart Island. I. paracausta can be found down to sea level in Southland.

This species is on the wing from October to January. Adults are attracted to light and have been collected via a mercury vapour light trap.

Knowledge about the life history of this species needs to be increased. Larvae have been recorded as feeding on various grasses. Pupa have been found in a slight cocoon under the bark of a tree.

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