Taxonomic Information
Leucania Ochsenheimer, 1816 species known from India.
Leucania albistigma Moore, 1881. India: West Bengal (Darjeeling).
Leucania basilinea Swinhoe, 1890. Myanmar
Leucania celebensis (Tams, 1935). India; Nepal.
Leucania corrugata Hampson, 1894. India: Himachal Pradesh
Leucania curvilinea Hampson, 1891. India: Nilgiris.
Leucania designata Walker, 1856. India: Karnataka (“Canara”: TL); Nepal; Myanmar.
Leucania fragilis (Butler, 1883). India: Himachal Pradesh.
Leucania ineana Snellen, 1880. India: Madhya Pradesh; Nepal.
Leucania loreyi (Duponchel, 1827). India; Nepal.
Leucania megaproctis (Hampson, 1905). Sri Lanka.
Leucania percussa Butler, 1880. India: West Bengal.
Leucania roseilinea Walker, 1862. India: Nilgiris.
Leucania polemusa Swinhoe, 1885. India: Maharashtra (Mumbai).
Leucania semiusta Hampson, 1891. India: Nilgiris.
Leucania venalba Moore, 1867. India: West Bengal.
Leucania uniformis Moore, 1881. NW Himalaya.
Leucania vana (Swinhoe, 1885). India: Maharashtra (Pune).
Leucania vindhyae Hreblay & Legrain, 1999. India: Vindhyas.
Leucania yu Guenée, 1852. India.
Photo Gallery and Species Biology
Leucania loreyi - False Army Worm; Cosmopolitan
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Diagnosis (Based on Moths of Borneo). This species could be confused with Mythimna venalba Moore and Mythimna roseilinea Walker, but is larger with a distinct white fleck at the discal end of CuA in the forewing cell. On the forewing below the postmedial costal brown mark of the other two species is absent in loreyi. The hindwing margin often has dark brown marks on the veins; these are rarely seen in the other two species.
| 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 | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Chhattisgarh | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Dadra & Nagar Haveli | |||||||||||||
| Daman & Diu | |||||||||||||
| Delhi | |||||||||||||
| Goa | |||||||||||||
| Gujarat | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Haryana | |||||||||||||
| Himachal Pradesh | |||||||||||||
| Jammu and Kashmir UT | |||||||||||||
| Jharkhand | |||||||||||||
| Karnataka | |||||||||||||
| Kerala | |||||||||||||
| Ladakh UT | |||||||||||||
| Lakshadweep | |||||||||||||
| Madhya Pradesh | |||||||||||||
| Maharashtra | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Manipur | |||||||||||||
| Meghalaya | |||||||||||||
| Mizoram | |||||||||||||
| Nagaland | |||||||||||||
| Odisha | |||||||||||||
| Paschimbanga | |||||||||||||
| Pondicherry | |||||||||||||
| Punjab | |||||||||||||
| Rajasthan | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Sikkim | |||||||||||||
| Tamil Nadu | |||||||||||||
| Tripura | |||||||||||||
| Uttar Pradesh | |||||||||||||
| Uttarakhand | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| West Bengal | 1 | ||||||||||||
| Total | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
- OD: Noctua loreyi Duponchel, 1827. Hist. nat. Lépid. Fr. 7 (1): 81, pl. 105, f. 7; TL: Dijon.
- Leucania collecta Walker, 1856. List Spec. Lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus. 9: 105; TL: Punjab. Text at https://archive.org/details/listofspecimens09brit/page/105/mode/1up?view=theater
- Leucania designata Walker, 1856. List Spec. Lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus. 9: 107; TL: India, Canara. Text at https://archive.org/details/listofspecimens09brit/page/107/mode/1up?view=theater
- Hampson, G. F. 1894. The Fauna of British India including Ceylon and Burma. Moths, Vol. 2. Taylor & Francis, London. Arctiidae, Agrostidae, Noctuidae 609 p - 325 figs.pg. 274, # 1191.
- Acantholeucania loreyi (Duponchel); Haruta, T. (Ed.). 1992. Moths of Nepal. Part 1. TINEA. Vol. 13 (Supplement 2). The Japan Heterocerists’ Society, Tokyo.Pl. 15: 11.
- https://www.leps.it/indexjs.htm?SpeciesPages/MythLore.htm
- https://www.mothsofborneo.com/part-12/hadeninae/hadeninae_4_16.php as Mythimna loreyi (Duponchel, 1827).
- https://www.africanmoths.com/pages/NOCTUIIDAE/HADENIINAE/leucania%20loreyi.html
- http://www2.nrm.se/en/svenska_fjarilar/l/leucania_loreyi.html
- http://lepidoptera.butterflyhouse.com.au/hade/loreyi.html
- https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/468734-Leucania-loreyi
Page citation
Anonymous 2025. Leucania loreyi (Duponchel, 1827) – False Army Worm; Cosmopolitan. 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://mothsofindia.org/leucania-loreyi, accessed 2025/04/24.