Elaphria venustula Hubner 1790
Creators: name: Han, Hui-Lin
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2011
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Noctuidae
Elaphria
Elaphria venustula

description: Elaphria venustula (Hübner, 1790)
(Figs. 2, 8, 10, 14)
Phalaena Noctua venustula Hübner, 1790, Beiträge zur Geschichte der Schmetterlinge 2 (3): 78, pl. 3 (4): 7 (Type-locality: Germany: Augsburg).
Synonymy: hybnerana Fabricius, 1794.
References: Hampson 1909: 493, text fig. 138 (Monodes, Acronyctinae); Warren 1913: 217, fig. 45i (Psilomonodes, Amphipyrinae); Sugi 1982: 1: 821; 2: 384, pl. 197: 69, 68 (Hapalotis, Acontiinae); Chen 1982: 250, fig. 1806 (Monodes, Amphipyrinae); Poole 1985: 353 (Elaphria); Chen, 1999: 769 (Elaphria, Amphipyrinae); Kononenko 1990: 10 (Hapalotis, Acontiinae); 2003: 259, figs 1, 2; 2005: 86 (Elaphria, Acontiinae); 2010:19 (Elaphria, Xyleninae, Elaphriini); Kononenko et al. 1998: 168, fig. 436 (Elaphria, Acontiinae); Fibiger & Hacker 2007: 62, Pl. 2: 86–93, gen. figs. 27, 171 (Elaphria, Xyleninae, Elaphriini); Kononenko & Han 2007: 101, pl. 109:3, 251:2 (Elaphria, Xyleninae, Elaphriini).
Material examined. 53 specimens from Europe (France, Hungary, Germany, Denmark), Russia (European part, Ural, West Siberia, Khabarovsk and Primorye terr.), Korea, China, Japan.
Diagnosis. Adult (Fig. 2). Wingspan 18 – 22 mm. Frons smooth, rounded, labial palps upturned, 3rd segment is about 2 times shorter than 2nd. Head and thorax and ground colour of forewing white, in fresh specimens with rosy hue; wing pattern with rather large patches of blackish-brown; costal area dark, brownish-grey; the most prominent dark patch is the large triangular ventral one in medial area with large distinct black spot; postmedial line white, orbicular missing, reniform blackish; subterminal field greyish, divided by a white patch by apex; subterminal line diffused, blackish, terminal field blackish-brown, terminal line blackish, diffused; fringes dark grey. Hindwing greyish with weakly traceable postmedial line and discal spot. Coremata presents in base of abdomen. In male genitalia (Fig. 8) uncus relatively stout and short; tegumen broad, with broad penicular lobes; vinculum shorter than tegument, narrow; pleural sclerites plate-like; valva rather long, broader medially; basal half of costa sclerotised, with small traceable digitus; costal margin behind digitus with unsclerotised band; sacculus short, clasper positioned basally, harpe prominent, straight, angled on apical third. Aedeagus short and broad, vesica with large, long, membranous basal diverticulum, bearing large broad-based tapered and pointed cornutus. In female genitalia (Fig. 14) papillae anales moderate, apophyses anteriores and posteriores thin, almost equal in length; 7th abdominal segment with prominent sclerotised antevaginal crest; ductus bursae rather wide, sclerotised, ribbed; corpus bursae ovoid, constricted medially, with large appendix bursae in caudal part.
Distribution and biology. A Eurasian species, widely distributed in temperate Palaearctic from Europe, northern Middle East, Ural, throughout south Siberia and Kazakhstan to Russian Far East, Mongolia, China, Korea and Japan. A mesophilous species that occurs in open forest, meadows, and forest-steppe. Two generations per year, the moths flying in late May-June and late July-August. Larvae feed on withered plants of Pothentilla, Rubus, Alchemilla, Genista, and Sarothamnus.
Taxonomic note. The systematic position of E. venustula has remained uncertain for a long time. It has been placed by authors in either Amphipyrinae or Acontiinae. Its position was fixed in the tribe Elaphriini of the subfamily Xyleninae by Fibiger & Hacker (2007) (currently the tribe Elaphriini in the subfamily Noctuinae; Lafontaine & Schmidt 2010).
description: Published as part of Han, Hui-Lin, 2011, Strotihypera, a new Old World genus of the tribe Elaphriini (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae, Noctuinae), pp. 59-68 in Zootaxa 3116 on pages 62-66, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.201702