''Diarsia florida'', the fen square-spot, is a

moth Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of w ...

of the family

Noctuidae The Noctuidae, commonly known as owlet moths, cutworms or armyworms, are a family of moths. They are considered the most controversial family in the superfamily Noctuoidea because many of the clades are constantly changing, along with the other f ...

. The species was first described by Schmidt in 1859. It is found from western Europe,

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

, southern

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

and southern

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

, east to

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

and

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...

. Subspecies ''perturbata'' is found in south-eastern

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

. The

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan of ...

is about 34 mm. The ab. ''florida'' Schmidt (10 c) appears to be only a brightly coloured and well-marked form of ''Diarsia rubi'' ">Diarsia_rubi.html" ;"title="of ''Diarsia rubi">of ''Diarsia rubi'' It may be a fenland ecotype of ''rubi''. The larvae feed on ''Athyrium'', ''Betula'', ''Calluna'', ''Caltha'', ''Lamium'', ''Primula'', ''Rubus'', ''Rumex'', ''Scrophularia'', ''Struthiopteryx'', ''

Vaccinium ''Vaccinium'' is a common and widespread genus of shrubs or dwarf shrubs in the heath family (Ericaceae). The fruits of many species are eaten by humans and some are of commercial importance, including the cranberry, blueberry, bilberry (whort ...

'' and ''

Urtica ''Urtica'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Urticaceae. Many species have stinging hairs and may be called nettles or stinging nettles, although the latter name applies particularly to ''Urtica dioica''. ''Urtica'' species are food f ...

'' species.

Subspecies

*''Diarsia florida florida'' *''Diarsia florida perturbata'' (south-eastern Turkey)

Similar species

''Diarsia florida'' is difficult to certainly distinguish from its congeners. See Townsend et al.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. *''

Protolampra sobrina ''Protolampra sobrina'', the cousin german, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Philogène Auguste Joseph Duponchel in 1843. It is found in most of Europe, then east across the Palearctic to Siberia, Altai, Irk ...

'' (Duponchel, 1843) *''

Diarsia mendica The ingrailed clay (''Diarsia mendica'') is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Johan Christian Fabricius in 1775. It is distributed through most of Europe and the Palearctic. This species occurs in a huge range ...

'' ssp. ''mendica'' (Fabricius, 1775) *''

'' ssp. ''thulei'' (Staudinger, 1891) *''

'' ssp. ''orkneyensis'' (Bytinski-Salz, 1930) *''

Diarsia rubi The small square-spot (''Diarsia rubi'') is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was Species description, first described by Karl Friedrich Vieweg in 1790. It is found in Europe apart from the far south-east then east through the Caucasus, ...

'' (Vieweg, 1790)

References

External links

*
''Lepiforum e.V.''
Diarsia Moths of Europe Moths of Asia Moths described in 1859 {{Noctuinae-stub