Aedia leucomelas, the eastern alchymist, sweet potato leaf worm or sorcerer, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It is found in large parts of the world, ranging from Europe all over Asia up to Japan and some African countries. The subspecies Aedia leucomelas acronyctoides is found in Australia.
No narrative description available for this taxon yet.
A DNA barcode is a short, standardised stretch of genes that works like a fingerprint — enough to tell one species from another. Below is the molecular trace Aedia leucomelas has left across the world's sequence archives.
At a glance
DNA specimens74
BINs5
Marker genes2
eDNA detections70
Countries17
The DNA barcodethe species' typical barcode, built from every sequenced specimen
COI-5P658 bp consensus71 specimens
ACGT
▸ drag or hover over the strip to read any position — letter and how much it varies
Violet ticks below the strip = positions where individuals differ; flat = the species' unchanging signature. 87% of positions are identical in every specimen.
Where individuals differ — all 85 variable positions, in barcode order
Each circle is a barcode variant; bigger = more specimens, colour = region. Lines join the most similar variants and the tick marks count the mutations between them — a tight cluster is one “dialect”, a long line a more divergent lineage. Click a circle to list its actual specimens.
Diversity (π)5.8%
Haplotypes24
BINs5
Most divergent pair10.3%
OceaniaEuropeAsia
Closest relatives by DNA barcode
The species whose COI barcode is most similar to this one — a quick “who is this most like”. The percentage is how much the barcode differs; it approximates, but is not, the full evolutionary tree.
★ the standard DNA barcode for this group — the short region actually read to tell this species apart. The rest are extra genes sequenced along the way.
★COI-3P★COI-5P
animal barcode
08Occurrence & distribution
Record type5 887 records
Wild obs. + sensor4 809
Museum / vouchered688
Other390
Origin
Native541
Range
Area of Occupancy AOO7 444 km²
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Coordinate accuracy58% within 1 km
≤100 m 1 524≤1 km 300≤10 km 1 166>10 km 155
3 145 georeferenced · 1 664 without coordinates
Open the mapobservation + sensor4 809
Museum / Voucheredphysical evidence
Backed by a physical specimen — a herbarium sheet, sample or voucher held in a collection. “Vouchered” means supported by material evidence, not just an observation.
Coordinate accuracy10% within 1 km
≤100 m 8≤1 km 33≤10 km 383>10 km 7
431 georeferenced · 257 without coordinates
Open the institutions mapphysical evidence688
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
10Collections & institutions
Holding institutions14 of 42 geolocated
Institutions and collections holding physical, vouchered specimens of this species — click a row to fly to it on the map.
Institution
Specimens
Zürich, CH
145
UMUlocation not on record
60
SFRAlocation not on record
49
Museums Victorialocation not on record
32
Helsinki, FI
28
tesrilocation not on record
27
Glarus, CH
26
DPIlocation not on record
21
Museo civico di Storia naturale Giacomo Doria di Genova | Giacomo Doria Natural History Museum in Genoalocation not on record
20
Chiba, JP
18
Museum Ludovicae Ulricae, Zoology Institute of the University of Uppsalalocation not on record
16
Provincia di Livornolocation not on record
14
Tartu, EE
13
Taiwan Forestry Research Institutelocation not on record
12
Kawasaki Shi Tama Ku, JP
12
Bern, CH
11
Frauenfeld, CH
10
Natural History Museum Rotterdamlocation not on record
10
FACTlocation not on record
7
Naturmuseum St. Gallenlocation not on record
5
Banyoles, ES
4
HUNMlocation not on record
3
Paro, BT
3
Naturmuseum Oltenlocation not on record
3
Sagamihara, JP
2
Universität Zürich, Naturhistorisches Museumlocation not on record
2
Toyota city nature sanctuarylocation not on record
2
NSMKlocation not on record
2
ZSMlocation not on record
2
Dhaka, BD
2
National Institute of Biological Resourceslocation not on record
1
Tallinn, EE
1
Musee d'Histoire Naturallelocation not on record
1
Hiwa Museum of Natural Historylocation not on record
1
Philadelphia, US
1
DABUHlocation not on record
1
John May Museum of Natural Historylocation not on record
1
SUVlocation not on record
1
Research Collection of Egbert Friedrichlocation not on record
1
European Distributed Institute of Taxonomy (EDIT)location not on record
1
MZLUlocation not on record
1
Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallerylocation not on record
1
42 institutions · 573 of 688 vouchered records shown · 115 without an institution code
09Environmental DNA70 detections
Where the DNA of Aedia leucomelas was picked up in samples of water, soil or air — nobody saw the organism, only its DNA left behind. A trace is a clue that the species was near, not a confirmed sighting.
Signal
Detections DNA found70
Studies independent surveys1
Countries13
Signal confidence: weakweighed across independent studies, places & mapped detections
Where its DNA was found
0 of 70 detections have coordinates
Open the map13 countries0
Dry Sclerophyll Forest8. Desert | 8.1. Hot Desert
How strong is each trace?
DNA read depthRead counts were not reported for this species — the map shows presence only, not how strong each trace was.
Modelled climatemodelled
−15°Ctemperature across detection sites+40°C
Temperature median22.4 °C 15.9–25.6
Seasonal swing summer↔winter12.2 °C
Max temp (day)24.7 °C 21.1–30.0
Min temp (night)17.7 °C 10.5–22.1
Precipitation110 mm/mo 26.6–179
Air humidity61.6 % 53.5–62.6
Moisture balance-20.3 mm/mo
Vapour deficit1,033 Pa 751–1,371
Wind speed2.70 m/s
Cloud cover30.8 % 24.6–47.6
CHELSA 1981–2010, ~9 km grid, at location & month of 66 detection points · median with p10–p90 · reflects where sampling happened, not only the true niche
How to read this: each dot is one detection of this species' DNA in an environmental sample. The confidence meter weighs how many independent studies and places back up the signal — one detection in one study is a hint; many across several studies is solid. Records dated before 2008 (when eDNA methods began) are treated as likely mislabeled and left off the map.
WikipediaWikimedia Foundation6 languages↗
BioWikiNetmultilingual Wikipediamultilingual↗
GBIFGlobal Biodiversity Information Facility5 887 records↗
ENAEuropean Nucleotide Archive · EMBL-EBI70 eDNA detections↗
BOLD SystemsCentre for Biodiversity Genomics74 specimens↗
Open Tree of LifeOpenTreephylogeny backbone↗
GLoBIGlobal Biotic Interactionsbiotic interactions↗