Proteuxoa chrysospila

Proteuxoa chrysospila (Lower, 1902)
Blunt Noctuid
(previously known as Caradina chrysospila)
ACRONICTINAE, NOCTUIDAE, NOCTUOIDEA

Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

(Photo: courtesy of jb2602, Ainslie, Australian Capital Territory)

The moths of this species are brown with a central pale spot, and a pale marginal area, on each forewing, and hindwings that fade toward the bases. The thorax has two narrow dark brown streaks The wingspan is about 3 cms.

(Photo: courtesy of CSIRO/BIO Photography Group, Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, University of Guelph)

This species has been found in Australia in

New South Wales,

Australian Capital Territory,

Victoria,

Tasmania,

South Australia, and

Western Australia.

The moths are easily confused with Proteuxoa paragypsa, but Proteuxoa chrysospila has a blunt, solid and undivided forewing reniform mark (i.e not divided into two lobes).

female, drawing by George Francis Hampson, listed as Ariathisa chrysospila,
Catalogue of Lepidoptera Phalćnć in the British Museum,
Noctuidć, Volume VIII (1909), Plate CXXXI, fig. 28,
image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by Ernst Mayr Library, Harvard University.

Further reading

George Francis Hampson,
Catalogue of Noctuidae in the British Museum,
Catalogue of Lepidoptera Phalaenae in the British Museum,
Volume 8 (1909), p. 391, No. 4054, and also Plate 131, fig. 28.

Oswald B. Lower,
New Species of Australian Lepidoptera,
Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales,
Volume 26 (1902), pp. 650-651.

Peter Marriott & Marilyn Hewish,
Moths of Victoria - Part 9,
Cutworms and Allies - NOCTUOIDEA (C),
Entomological Society of Victoria, 2020, pp. 16-17.

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(written 8 February 2012, updated 18 May 2025)