''Plusia'' is a

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 ...

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 ...

s 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 ...

. The genus was erected by

Ferdinand Ochsenheimer Ferdinand Ochsenheimer (17 March 1767 – 2 November 1822) was a German actor and entomologist (lepidopterist). Life Ochsenheimer was born and brought up in Mainz (then in the Electorate of Mainz) and began to show an interest in butterflies ...

in 1816.

Description

Palpi upturned, where the second joint reaching vertex of head. Antennae of male ciliated. Thorax with a very large spreading tuft on the vertex. Abdomen with three large dorsal tufts on basal segments, and lateral and anal tufts more or less strongly developed in male. Forewings hooked at outer angle. Larva with two pairs of abdominal prolegs.

Species

* ''

Plusia contexta ''Plusia contexta'', the connected looper, is a species of looper moth in 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 ...

'' Grote, 1873 * ''

Plusia festucae ''Plusia festucae'' (gold spot) is a species of moth of the family Noctuidae. It is found throughout the Palearctic realm from Ireland to Japan. Technical description and variation The wingspan is 34–46 mm. Forewing deep golden brown, wi ...

'' Linnaeus, 1758 - gold spot * ''

Plusia magnimacula ''Plusia magnimacula'' is a species of looper moth in 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 ...

'' D. Handfield & L. Handfield, 2006 * ''

Plusia manchurica ''Plusia'' is a genus of moths of the family Noctuidae. The genus was erected by Ferdinand Ochsenheimer in 1816. Description Palpi upturned, where the second joint reaching vertex of head. Antennae of male ciliated. Thorax with a very large spre ...

'' Lempke, 1966 * ''

Plusia nichollae ''Plusia nichollae'' is a species of looper moth in 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 fa ...

'' Hampson, 1913 * ''

Plusia putnami ''Plusia putnami'', the Lempke's gold spot or Putnam's looper moth, is a species of moth of the family Noctuidae. It is found in the Palearctic realm, from Japan and eastern Siberia to Fennoscandia, Great Britain, and France. In North America, it ...

'' Grote, 1873 * ''

Plusia rosanovi ''Plusia'' is a genus of moths of the family Noctuidae. The genus was erected by Ferdinand Ochsenheimer in 1816. Description Palpi upturned, where the second joint reaching vertex of head. Antennae of male ciliated. Thorax with a very large spre ...

'' Nabokov, 1912Writer

Vladimir Nabokov Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov ( ; 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (), was a Russian and American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Born in Imperial Russia in 1899, Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Rus ...

paraphrased his father's description of the owlet moth ''Plusia rosanovi'' (as it appeared in Volume III of the four-volume ''Butterflies and Moths of the Russian Empire'', 1912) in his posthumous essa
"Father's Butterflies"
printed in ''The Atlantic'', April 2000: "How lovely it is, by the way, how one's eye is caressed by, the dark-cherry forewing, traversed by a mauve-pink stripe and adorned at its center by the golden emblem of its genus, in this instance a tapering, bowed half-moon -- and if it is hard to render the flowery velvet of the background, what is one to say of the 'emblem,' which, on the actual moth, resembles a dab of gilt redolent of turpentine, and must therefore be copied (and recopied!) in such a way that the painter's work transmits, besides all the rest, a resemblance to the work of a painter!" * '' Plusia venusta'' Walker, 1865

References

* * * Plusiinae Taxa named by Ferdinand Ochsenheimer {{Plusiinae-stub