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''Euparthenos'' 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 "unisp ...

moth Moths are a group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not Butterfly, butterflies. They were previously classified as suborder Heterocera, but the group is Paraphyly, paraphyletic with respect to butterflies (s ...

genus in the family

Erebidae The Erebidae are a family (biology), 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 underwin ...

erected by

Augustus Radcliffe Grote Augustus Radcliffe Grote (February 7, 1841 – September 12, 1903) was a British entomologist who Species description, described over 1,000 species of Lepidoptera, butterflies and moths.Osborn, H. 1937. Fragments of Entomological History. Columb ...

in 1876. Its only species, ''Euparthenos nubilis'', the locust underwing, was first described by

Jacob Hübner Jacob Hübner (20 June 1761 – 13 September 1826, in Augsburg) was a German entomologist. He was the author of ''Sammlung Europäischer Schmetterlinge'' (1796–1805), a founding work of entomology. Scientific career Hübner was the author of '' ...

in 1823. The adults resemble some of the underwing moths of genus ''

Catocala ''Catocala'' is a generally Holarctic genus of moths in the family Erebidae. The genus was erected by Franz von Paula Schrank in 1802. The moths are commonly known as underwing moths or simply underwings. These terms are sometimes used for a fe ...

'', which are fairly close relatives, in color, pattern, and the habit of resting on tree trunks. But ''E. nubilis'' can usually be immediately recognized by the four

concentric In geometry, two or more objects are said to be ''concentric'' when they share the same center. Any pair of (possibly unalike) objects with well-defined centers can be concentric, including circles, spheres, regular polygons, regular polyh ...

black bands per hindwing, as opposed to one or two (at most three) in ''Catocala''.

Color morph Color (or colour in Commonwealth English; see spelling differences) is the visual perception based on the electromagnetic spectrum. Though color is not an inherent property of matter, color perception is related to an object's light absor ...

s of ''E. nubilis'' with altered pattern are known, however, and these may be hard to recognize without detailed examination.Nelson & Loy (1983), and see references in Savela (2019) This moth has light grey forewings with a pattern of darker grey and brown lines and shading. The hindwings are yellow orange with the aforementioned four black bands each. The

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

is 56–70 mm (over 2 to almost 3 inches.BugGuide (2013) The species is found in North America from

Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

and

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

, south to northern

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

, west to

Nebraska Nebraska ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Ka ...

and

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

. Adults are on wing from April to September. There are two generations per year. The larvae feed on ''

Robinia ''Robinia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Fabaceae, tribe Robinieae, native to North America. Commonly known as locusts, they are deciduous trees and shrubs growing tall. The leaves are pinnate with 7–21 oval leaflets. The flowe ...

'' (locust tree) species, such as

black locust ''Robinia pseudoacacia'', commonly known as black locust, is a medium-sized hardwood deciduous tree, belonging to the tribe Robinieae of the legume family Fabaceae. It is native to a few small areas of the United States, but it has been widely pl ...

(''R. pseudoacacia''). The adults like to drink the juice of fermenting fruit, and are attracted to lights.

Systematics and taxonomy

Classification

The species and genus were previously classified in the subfamily

Catocalinae The Catocalinae are a subfamily of noctuoid moths, placed in family Noctuidae. In the alternative arrangement, where the Noctuidae are reduced to the core group around the Noctuinae, the present lineage is abolished, the upranked Catocalini be ...

of the family

Noctuidae The Noctuidae, commonly known as owlet moths, cutworms or armyworms, are a family (biology), family of moths. Taxonomically, they are considered the most controversial family in the superfamily Noctuoidea because many of the clades are constantly ...

and in the tribe

Ophiusini The Ophiusini are a tribe (biology), tribe of moths in the family Erebidae. Taxonomy The tribe is one of the most successful of the major Evolutionary radiation, radiations of the subfamily Erebinae. The tribe was previously classified as the s ...

of the family

Subspecies

The species has the following described subspecies.See references in Savela (2019) * ''Euparthenos nubilis apache'' (Poling, 1901) * ''Euparthenos nubilis nubilis'' (Hübner, 1823) * ''Euparthenos nubilis osiris'' Barnes & Benjamin, 1926

Synonyms

The

junior synonym In taxonomy, the scientific classification of living organisms, a synonym is an alternative scientific name for the accepted scientific name of a taxon. The botanical and zoological codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently. ...

s of this moth are: *

Genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

-level: ** ''Catocalirrhus'' Andrews, 1877 ** ''Parthenos'' Hübner, 1823 (''non'' Hübner, 1819:

preoccupied In biology, a homonym is a name for a taxon that is identical in spelling to another such name, that belongs to a different taxon. The rule in the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature is that the first such name to be published is the s ...

) *

Species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

-level: ** ''Euparthenos faciata'' (Beutenmüller, 1907) ** ''Euparthenos unilineata'' (Chermock & Chermock, 1940) ( morph)

Footnotes

References

* *Nelson, John M. & Loy, Peter W. (1983)
"The Underwing Moths (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) of Oklahoma"
''Proceedings of the Oklahoma Academy of Science''. 63: 60–67.

External links

* * Omopterini Moths of North America Monotypic moth genera Moths described in 1823 {{Omopterini-stub