Proteuxoa gypsina (Lower, 1897)
Pale Noctuid
 (previously known as Agrotis gypsina)
ACRONICTINAE,   NOCTUIDAE,   NOCTUOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Proteuxoa gypsina
(Photo: courtesy of Helen Wallace, Port Noarlunga Beach, South Australia)

The adult moth of this species has pale grey forewings, each with a scattering of black specks, and a brownish splodge near the middle. The hindwings are white. The abdomen shades to yellow at the tip. The wingspan is about 3.5 cms.

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

The species has been found in:

  • Victoria,
  • South Australia, and
  • Western Australia.

    Proteuxoa gypsina
    male, drawing by George Francis Hampson, listed as Ariathisa gypsina,
    Catalogue of Lepidoptera Phalænæ in the British Museum,
    Noctuidæ, Volume VIII (1909), Plate CXXXI, fig. 30,
    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), pp. 392-393, No. 4056, and also Plate 131, fig. 30.

    Oswald B. Lower,
    Descriptions of new Australian Lepidoptera,
    Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia,
    Volume 21 (1897), p. 52.

    Peter Marriott & Marilyn Hewish,
    Moths of Victoria - Part 9,
    Cutworms and Allies - NOCTUOIDEA (C)    ,
    Entomological Society of Victoria, 2020, pp. 14-15.

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    (written 31 May 2012, updated 24 January 2023)