Neostauropus viridissimus (Bethune-Baker, 1904) (one synonym: Neostauropus habrochlora Turner, 1922) NOTODONTINAE,   NOTODONTIDAE,   NOCTUOIDEA

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

(Photo: courtesy of Buck Richardson, Kuranda, Queensland)

These caterpillars have a flat tail which they normally bend back over the body to show the underside which has markings like a leaf. The thorax has a prominent backward curving spine.

photo by George Thomas Bethune-Baker, listed as Stauropus viridissimus,
New Lepidoptera from British New Guinea, Novitates Zoologicae,
Volume XI(1904), Plate IV, fig 1,
image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library,
digitized by Natural History Museum Library, London.

The adult moths of this species have forewings which are a patchy green. Each hindwing is mainly orange, blending to green along the costa. The wingspan is about 4 cms. In its resting pose: the hindwings project from under the forewings.

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

The species has been found in

Queensland.

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Further reading :

George Thomas Bethune-Baker,
New Lepidoptera from British New Guinea,
Novitates Zoologicae,
Volume 11 (1904), p. 378, No. 21, and also Plate 4, fig 1.

Ian F.B. Common,
Moths of Australia, Melbourne University Press, 1990, pl. 17.1, p. 421.

Buck Richardson,
Tropical Queensland Wildlife from Dusk to Dawn Science and Art,
LeapFrogOz, Kuranda, 2015, p. 175.

Paul Zborowski and Ted Edwards,
A Guide to Australian Moths, CSIRO Publishing, 2007, p. 174.

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(updated 21 April 2011, 4 May 2019)