''Murmyshia obscuria'' is a species of

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 ...

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 ...

. As of June 2024, it has only been found in the northern part of the

Malay Peninsula The Malay Peninsula is located in Mainland Southeast Asia. The landmass runs approximately north–south, and at its terminus, it is the southernmost point of the Asian continental mainland. The area contains Peninsular Malaysia, Southern Tha ...

, or more specifically the Taninthayeryi Region of

Myanmar Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has ...

Description

This species is generally smaller than the other members of the genus, the hindwing is brown unlike the other members that have a lighter tone, the forewing is also darker. The males have a larger stripe that takes up almost half of the forewing, which is only just a relatively thin stripe in the congeners. The length of the forewing in males is 14.0–15.0 mm (0.55–0.59 in) and 16.5–18.0 mm (0.64–0.71 in) in females. The male genitalia are readily distinguished by the two assymmetrical juxta that are subdivided into two narrow lateral lobes (separated by the medial membrane). The other species have symmetrical juxta, dorsally fused lateral lobes. The female genitalia have longer ductus bursae than M. micans with a longer sclerotized subostial area without the dorsal pocket. The corpus bursae are somewhat narrower and bear a slightly longer signum. The female genitalia bear little resemblance with M. unifascia.

Etymology

The

specific epithet In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, both of which use Latin gramm ...

means "dark" in reference to the general dark coloration of this species and is derived from the

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

adjective An adjective (abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a word that describes or defines a noun or noun phrase. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Traditionally, adjectives are considered one of the main part of speech, parts of ...

"obscurus".

Genitalia

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q134376960 Lithosiini