Cerastis punctosa Walker, 1857
 (also known as Dasygaster punctosa)
HADENINAE,   NOCTUIDAE,   NOCTUOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Cerastis punctosa
(Photo: courtesy of K.D. Bishop, Armidale, New South Wales)

The adult moths of this species have fawn wings each forewing having a pattern of dark dots and splotches. The hindwings are brown, fading to off-white at the bases. The wingspan is up to 3 cms.

Cerastis punctosa
male, drawing by George Francis Hampson, listed as Chabuatta punctosa,
Catalogue of Lepidoptera Phalænæ in the British Museum,
Noctuidæ, Volume V (1905), Plate LXXXVI, figure 16,
image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by Ernst Mayr Library, Harvard University.

The species has been found in Australia in

  • New South Wales, and
  • Victoria.

    The genus into which this species should be placed, or whether it is a species at all, are controversial.

    The species has been confused with the Eurasian species Leucania punctosa (Treitschke, 1825), also in HADENINAE, and the far eastern species Hypersypnoides punctosa (Walker, 1865) in CATOCALINAE.

    Further reading :

    Francis Walker,
    Noctuidae,
    List of the Specimens of Lepidopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum,
    Part 10 (1857), p. 453, No. 12.

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    (updated 14 April 2013, 23 September 2021, 17 June 2022)