The caterpillar pupates in a cocoon attached to a foodplant stem.

(Photo: courtesy of Graeme Cocks, Townsville, Queensland)

The adult moth has brown forewings, with a complex light and dark pattern of lines. The hindwings are white shading darker toward the margins. The wingspan is about 3 cms.

female, drawing by George Francis Hampson, listed as Neogalea braziliensis,
Catalogue of Lepidoptera Phalænæ in the British Museum,
Noctuidæ, Volume VI (1906), p. 8, figure 2,
image courtesy of Internet Archive, digitized by Gerstein Library, University of Toronto.

This species was introduced deliberately into Australia from the USA to control the weed Lantana.

drawing by Herbert Druce, listed as Xylina esula,
in Godman & Salvin (1889): Biologia Centrali-Americana,
Insecta: Lepidoptera-Heterocera, Volume 3, Plate 28, figure 1,
image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library, digitized by Smithsonian Libraries.

The species occurs naturally in

as well as later in 1957 and 1962 into Australia, and has now been found for example in

Further reading :

Achille Guenée, in Boisduval & Guenée,
Apamidae,
Histoire naturelle des insectes; spécies général des lépidoptères,
Volume 9, Part 5 (1852), p. 149, No. 238.

Peter Marriott & Marilyn Hewish,
Moths of Victoria - Part 9,
Cutworms and Allies - NOCTUOIDEA (C),
Entomological Society of Victoria, 2020, p. 5.

Ebbe S. Nielsen, Edward D. Edwards, & T.V. Rangsi (eds),
Checklist of Australian Lepidoptera,
CSIRO Publishing, 1996, pp. 328, 338, 379.

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(updated 15 August 2012, 2 December 2024