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White Witch
Bernard DUPONT, CC BY 4.0, via iNaturalist

Butterflies & moths

White Witch

Thysania agrippina Cramer, 1776

Names

EnglishWhite Witch
Dutch—
SpanishMariposa emperador
Chinese强喙夜蛾
Sranan Tongokapelka (general name for the group)
Scientific nameThysania agrippina Cramer, 1776

About this species

Thysania agrippina is a species of moth in the family Erebidae. It was described by Maria Sibylla Merian in her 1705 publication Metamorphosis insectorum Surinamensium, and Pieter Cramer provided the formal description of the species in 1776. The most commonly accepted English name is the white witch. Other common names include the ghost moth, great gray witch and great owlet moth. Thysania agrippina is of interest as a competitor for title of "largest insect". This may be true by the measure of wingspan—a Brazilian specimen with a wingspan of almost 30 cm (12 in) appears to hold the record. The Atlas moth and Hercules moth, however, have greater wing areas. The white witch occurs from Uruguay to Mexico, and appears as a stray as far north as Texas in the U.S. Collection dates shows no discernible pattern with respect to location or season.

Read more on Wikipedia · Text: Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

Classification

KingdomAnimalia
PhylumArthropoda
ClassInsecta
OrderLepidoptera
FamilyErebidae
GenusThysania

In Suriname

18Records in Suriname
13iNaturalist observations
1934First record
2026Latest record

Where it has been recorded

  • Sipaliwini12
  • Brokopondo3
  • Paramaribo1

Districts with at least one record that has coordinates. Shaded districts have records.

Records by month

All years combined.

Sources & credits

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Related species in Suriname