''Micronoctua'' is a

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...

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 ...

genus of the family

Erebidae The Erebidae are a family of moths in the superfamily Noctuoidea. The family is among the largest families of moths by species count and contains a wide variety of well-known macromoth groups. The family includes the underwings ('' Catocala'') ...

. Its only species, ''Micronoctua karsholti'', is known from southern

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 ...

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...

, the islands of south-east

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

, and the northern

Levant The Levant () is an approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the Eastern Mediterranean region of Western Asia. In its narrowest sense, which is in use today in archaeology and other cultural contexts, it is eq ...

(including

Lebanon Lebanon ( , ar, لُبْنَان, translit=lubnān, ), officially the Republic of Lebanon () or the Lebanese Republic, is a country in Western Asia. It is located between Syria to the north and east and Israel to the south, while Cyprus li ...

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

and

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

). Both the genus and the species were first described by Michael Fibiger in 1997. It is the smallest of all species of the superfamily Noctuoidea. 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 6–9 mm. The resting position is flat, with the forewing hind margins against each other. The hindwing venation is bifid. The head, patagia and prothorax are blackish, while the rest of the thorax and ground colour of the forewing is unicolorous dark greyish brown. All crosslines of the forewing are present and black. The fringes are grey. The hindwing is light greyish brown. The underside is unicolorous light brown, with a weakly marked postmedian line and a discal spot. The habitat consists of warm, dry areas in open grassland with many herbaceous plants and open pine forests. There are multiple generations per year and adults have been recorded from April to October.

Former species

*''Micronoctua occi'' is now ''

Parens occi ''Parens occi'' is a moth of the family Erebidae first described by Michael Fibiger and Vladimir S. Kononenko in 2008. It is known from the southern part of the Russian Far East to central, eastern and northeastern China, North Korea, South Korea ...

'' (Fibiger & Kononenko, 2008)

References

* * * Micronoctuini Moths of Europe Monotypic moth genera {{Micronoctuini-stub