Euxoa Obelisca
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''Euxoa obelisca'', the square-spot dart, is a moth 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 ...
. It is found in the Palearctic realm (Europe, Central Asia, North Africa Asia minor).


Technical description and variation

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. arrenhas 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. 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

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.


Similar species

''Euxoa obelisca 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.
*'' Euxoa tritici'' (Linnaeus, 1761) *''
Euxoa nigricans The garden dart (''Euxoa nigricans'') is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It is distributed throughout much of the Palearctic. Temperate regions of Europe, Central Asia and North Asia, as well as the mountains of North Africa. Absent from polar ...
'' (Linnaeus, 1761) *'' Euxoa cursoria'' (Hufnagel, 1766)


References


External links


Lepiforum
Taxonomy
Fauna Europaeawaarneming.nl Vlindernet Square-spot dart at UKmoths
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1945677 Moths described in 1775 Euxoa Moths of Africa Moths of Asia Moths of Europe Taxa named by Michael Denis Taxa named by Ignaz Schiffermüller