Euxoa obelisca
| Square-spot dart | |
|---|---|
| |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Superfamily: | Noctuoidea |
| Family: | Noctuidae |
| Genus: | Euxoa |
| Species: | E. obelisca
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| Binomial name | |
| Euxoa obelisca Denis & Schiffermüller, 1775
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Euxoa obelisca, the square-spot dart, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It is found in the Palearctic realm (Europe, Central Asia, North Africa Asia minor).
Technical description and variation
[edit]Forewing purplish brown; costa pale to outer line: cell dark brown; stigmata large, greyish ochreous: the claviform dark; hindwing in male white, with narrow grey shade along margin, in female more or less grey-tinged throughout.- in ab. fictilis Hbn. the forewing is more variegated, the submarginal line preceded by a row of distinct black teeth; - ab. ruris Hbn. , larger than typical, reddish grey or reddish brown, with or without the pale costa: stigmata large and pale: - ab. villiersii Guen. is also larger than typical; forewing ochreous grey with costa and both stigmata whitish, darker in the female; — ab. plectoides Guen. the same size as type, forewing with more acute apex, deep shining violet brown, with traces of subterminal only: costa and stigmata (which are small) pale testaceous; the orbicular somewhat angulated, the reniform constricted in middle: claviform obsolete: the cell deep black; hindwing very dark; described from a female only from Lapland; omitted by Staudinger, but probably a distinct species: a very distinct form from the Urals, which may be called ab. carbonis nov.[Warren] has the ground colour purplish black, with the costal streak and upper stigmata pale and the cell deep black: all the lines indistinct: several examples of both sexes sent from Uralsk by M. Bartel.[1]
The caterpillar is obscure greyish or brownish, with a dark-edged pale line along the middle of the dorsum, and a dusky line on each side of it; low down on the sides is another dusky line.
Biology
[edit]The moth flies from July to October depending on the location.
The larvae feed on various herbaceous plants, such as Helianthemum nummularium and Galium species.[2]
Similar species
[edit]Euxoa obelisca is difficult to certainly distinguish from its congeners. See Townsend et al.[3]
- Euxoa tritici (Linnaeus, 1761)
- Euxoa nigricans (Linnaeus, 1761)
- Euxoa cursoria (Hufnagel, 1766)
References
[edit]- ^ Seitz, A. Ed., 1914 Die Großschmetterlinge der Erde, Verlag Alfred Kernen, Stuttgart Band 3: Abt. 1, Die Großschmetterlinge des palaearktischen Faunengebietes, Die palaearktischen eulenartigen Nachtfalter, 1914
- ^ "Robinson, G. S., P. R. Ackery, I. J. Kitching, G. W. Beccaloni & L. M. Hernández, 2010. HOSTS – A Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants. Natural History Museum, London".
- ^ Martin C. Townsend, Jon Clifton and Brian Goodey (2010). British and Irish Moths: An Illustrated Guide to Selected Difficult Species. (covering the use of genitalia characters and other features) Butterfly Conservation.
External links
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