(Photo: courtesy of Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique)

The adult moth has brown forewings, each with a pale line and a red splodge. The hindwings are fawn shading darker toward the margin. The wingspan is about 3.5 cms.

drawing by Herbert Druce, listed as Plusia roxana,
Biologia Centrali-Americana :zoology, botany and archaeology,
Insecta: Lepidoptera: Heterocera; Supplement: Noctuidae, Plate 96, fig. 11,
image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by Smithsonian Libraries.

This species is endemic in the Caribbean and South America, including -

The larval foodplant (Lantana) is an unwanted weed in Australia. After studies by George Diatloff over 1974-1976, in the hope that it might help control the weed, the species was introduced deliberately, from Colombia, into Australia in

but in 2012 was said to have died out in Australia, but has lately (2020) been re-found in

drawing by Herbert Druce, listed as Plusia abeona,
Biologia Centrali-Americana :zoology, botany and archaeology,
Insecta: Lepidoptera: Heterocera; Supplement: Noctuidae, Plate 30, fig. 16,
image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by Smithsonian Libraries.

Further reading :

Achille Guenée,
Noctuélites,
in Boisduval & Guenée:
Histoire naturelle des insectes; spécies général des lépidoptères,
Volume 9, Part 6 (1852), p. 328, No. 1137. (listed as as Plusia illustrata)

Herbert Druce,
Insecta: Lepidoptera: Heterocera; Supplement: Noctuidae,
Biologia Centrali-Americana :zoology, botany and archaeology,
Volume 1 (1891-1900), p. 332, No. 15. and also Plate 30, fig. 16. (listed as Plusia abeona)

Herbert Druce,
Insecta: Lepidoptera: Heterocera; Supplement: Noctuidae,
Biologia Centrali-Americana :zoology, botany and archaeology,
Volume 2 (1891-1900), pp. 503-504, No. 15A. and also Plate 96, fig. 11. (listed as Plusia roxana)

Gottlieb August Wilhelm Herrich-Schäffer,
Die Schmetterlinge der Insel Cuba,
Correspondenz Blatt Zoologische-Mineralogischen Vereines in Regensburg,
Volume 22 (1868), p. 183. (listed as Plusia egenella)

Gowdey,
1926, p. 67 (listed as Syngrapha illustrata)

Lafontaine & Poole,
NOCTUOIDEA: Noctuidae,
The Moths of America North of Mexico,
Volume 25, Part 1 (1991), pl. 1, figs. 19 & 20 (adult); pl. B, figs. 6 & 7; pl J, fig 7; text fig. 16. (listed as Notioplusia illustrata)

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(updated 21 July 2010, 12 October 2025)