| | Insects of Britain and Ireland: the genera of Lepidoptera-Noctuidae |
Paraplusia Mukerji and Krishnamorthy
Adults. Eyes ciliated.
Thorax coloured like the forewings, tha abdomen lighter like the hindwings. Forewings shiny purplish brown or grey-brown, with a shining silvery-white median mark; purple, purplish, red, pinkish or rosy, or fuscous; neither green nor greenish tinged; complexly patterned (lined, shaded and marbled); the patterning well marked; predominantly shining-metallic, or exhibiting metallic-enamelled effects. Hindwings fuscous, or fuscous and pinkish; terminally darkened; with a clear discal mark to without a clear discal mark; transversely lined to without transverse lines; exhibiting vein 5. Vein 5 of the hindwings strong; arising nearer to vein 4 than to vein 6; convergent on vein 4 near their bases. Middle tibiae without spines. Abdomen crested.
Living adults found July to October.
Larvae, pupae. Ventral prolegs 4, or 6 (?). Larvae feeding on “Urtica, Mentha, Achillea, etc.”.
British representation. 1 species; South-east England and Northern England (taken in Surrey, Kent, Essex and Cumberland); confusa (Dewick’s Plusia).
Plusiinae.
Illustrations. • Macdunnoughia confusa (Dewick's Plusia), with Abrostola: photos. Figs. 1–2, Macdunnoughia confusa (Dewick's Plusia: a sporadic immigrant). 3–4, Abrostola tripartita (Spectacle); 5, Abrostola triplasia (Dark Spectacle).
1–2: Bagneux, Seine, Sept. 1954. 3–4, Cheddleton near Leek, Staffs., June 1957. 5, Cheddleton, June 1952. From Watson’s collection. • M. confusa, with adventive or casual Plusiinae. 1, Syngrapha interrogationis (Scarce Silver Y); 2, Chrysodeixis chalcites (Golden Twin Spot); 3, Chrysodeixis acuta (Tunbridge Wells Gem); 4, Ctenoplusia limbirana (Scar Bank Gem); 5, Macdunnoughia confusa (Dewick's Plusia); 6, Euchalcia variabilis (Purple-shaded Gem); 7, Diachrysia orichalcea (Slender Burnished Brass). Swain, 1961.
We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, and distributions of character states within any set of taxa. See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2003 onwards. Insects of Britain and Ireland: the genera of Lepidoptera-Noctuidae. Version: 14th February 2021. delta-intkey.com’.
