Proteuxoa microspila (Lower, 1902)
Little Noctuid
(one synonym : Nitocris exundans Guenée, 1868)
ACRONICTINAE,   NOCTUIDAE,   NOCTUOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Proteuxoa microspila
(Photo: courtesy of the Photography Group, Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, University of Guelph)

The forewings of the adult moth each have a pattern of dark brown, including various dark markings and an irregular off-white mark, like a little rectangle with two feet, near the middle. The hindwings each are also brown, fading toward the bases, with dark veins, and with a vague dark spot near the middle. The wingspan is about 2.5 cms.

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

The species occurs in Australia, including:

  • New South Wales,
  • Victoria,
  • Tasmania,
  • South Australia, and
  • Western Australia.

    Proteuxoa microspila
    male, drawing by George Francis Hampson, listed as Ariathisa microspila,

    Catalogue of Lepidoptera Phalænæ in the British Museum,
    Noctuidæ, Volume VIII (1909), Plate CXXXII, fig. 6,
    image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by Ernst Mayr Library, Harvard University.


    Further reading :

    Oswald B. Lower,
    Descriptions of new Australian Lepidoptera,
    Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales,
    Volume 26 (1902), p. 648.

    Peter Marriott & Marilyn Hewish,
    Moths of Victoria - Part 9,
    Cutworms and Allies - NOCTUOIDEA (C)
    ,
    Entomological Society of Victoria, 2020, pp. 18-19.


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    (written 1 January 2021)