Polychrysia moneta

Polychrysia moneta
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Clade:	Pancrustacea
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Superfamily:	Noctuoidea
Family:	Noctuidae
Genus:	Polychrysia
Species:	P. moneta
Binomial name
Polychrysia moneta (Fabricius, 1787)

Polychrysia moneta, the golden plusia, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It is found in the Palearctic realm (Europe, Asia Minor, Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Caucasus, and northwest Iran).

Technical description and variation

For a key to the terms used, see Glossary of entomology terms.

The wingspan is 32–37 mm. Forewing pale golden, diffusely tinged in median area with brown and sprinkled with black scales; the veins brown; the median shade conspicuously dark brown, thick, angled in middle: lines brown, double; the inner acutely angled on subcostal, below middle inwardly curved; outer line lunulate dentate; basal area flaked with golden scales; a pale golden apical blotch, cut and edged below by the brown submarginal line, which is rarely plain below middle; orbicular stigma large, oblique, horseshoe-shaped, with broad silvery outline and gold and brown centre, coalescing with a similar but inverted mark on vein 2; reniform hardly traceable; hindwing shining fuscous;the fringe pale.

Moth, larva and pupa in Karl Eckstein Die Schmetterlinge DeutschlandsLarva, pupa and moth (figure 4)

Biology

The moth flies from May to October depending on the location.

Larva dull dark green, black spotted, living when young in the heart of the central shoots; later, with dark dorsal vessel, limited by several whitish lines and a white lateral line. The larvae feed on Delphinium, Artemisia absinthium and Artemisia vulgaris.

External links

• Golden Plusia at UKmoths
• Funet Taxonomy
• Fauna Europaea
• Lepiforum.de
• Vlindernet.nl (in Dutch)