Cruria tropica

Cruria tropica (T.P. Lucas, 1891)
(one synonym : Agarista platyxantha Meyrick, 1891)
AGARISTINAE, NOCTUIDAE, NOCTUOIDEA

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

Cruria tropica
(Photo: courtesy Thomas Mesaglio, Litchfield Park, Northern Territory)

The adult moth of this species is black, with pale yellow patches on the forewings, and a broad ragged pale yellow arc on each hindwing. The abdomen is banded in black and yellow. The wingspan is about 5 cms.

male, listed as Cruria platyxantha,
drawing by Horace Knight, printed by West, Newman & Co. for George F. Hampson in
Catalogue of Lepidoptera Phalænæ in the British Museum, Volume III (1901), Plate LII, figure 1,
image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by Ernst Mayr Library, Harvard University.

The species has been found in

Northern Territory, and

Queensland.

Further reading:

George F. Hampson,
Catalogue of the Arctiadae and Agaristidae,
Catalogue of the Lepidoptera Phalænæ in the British Museum,
Volume 3 (1901), p. 548, No. 42, and also Plate 52, figure 1.

Thomas P. Lucas,
On Queensland and other Australian Macro-Lepidoptera, with Localities and Descriptions of new Species,
Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales,
Series 2, Volume 6, Part 2 (1890), pp. 302-303.

Edward Meyrick,
Descriptions of new Australian Lepidoptera,
Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia,
Volume 14 (1891), p. 194.

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(written 9 February 2015, updated 10 September 2026)