![]() | Black Crescent Owlet Moth Male, ventral | Black Crescent Owlet Moth Female, anterior | ![]() | |||
Class: | Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Insects (Insecta) | ||||
Order: | Butterflies & Moths (Lepidoptera) | ||||
Family: | Owlet moth (:Noctuoidea Noctuidae Acronictinae) | ||||
Species: | Black Crescent Owlet Moth (Proteuxoa sp ES6) | ||||
This Photo: | Female, profile | ||||
Synonym: | Thoracolopha | ||||
Thank you Marilyn Hewish for identifying this species for us General Species Information: Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA) and elsewhere While Thoracolopha is the currently accepted name (as of late 2017), we use the names on the ALA which hasn't caught up yet and still lists these under Proteuxoa. Marilyn said "This is labelled as an undescribed Proteuxoa species in the Aust. National Insect Collection. My research has found 25 Vic. specimens from the west of the state. It can be distinguished from P. verecunda by the very broad black crescent mark and the lack of wavy cross-lines on the forewing." About 12mm long with winspan of about 28mm. As both genders of Proteuxoa & thoracolopha have filiform antennae, it makes determining their genders more difficult. The body shapes, shown here, are used to guess the different genders. | |||||
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