Acronicta pruinosa

Description

Acronicta pruinosa is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It is found in Sri Lanka, the Himalaya, east to Japan and Taiwan south to Myanmar and Peninsular Malaysia, Borneo, Java and New Guinea. The wingspan is 44 mm in the male and 46 mm in the female. Palpi upturned in both sexes, and possess a short third joint. In male, head and thorax greyish white. Thorax clothed with scales. Abdomen whitish, with ochreous tinge at base, where fuscous towards extremity. Forewings whitish grey, with sub-basal and antemedial indistinct double lines present. Orbicular large, round, white, whereas reniform with black outline, its inner margin double. Postmedial double lunulate line filled with white and incurved at vein 2 and with fuscous suffused beyond it. There is a series of small marginal lunules can be seen. Cilia chequered fuscous and white. Hindwings slightly whitish suffused with fuscous, and with traces of a postmedial line. Underside with a cell-spot and a patch on costa above it with a maculate postmedial line. In female, hindwings are fuscous brown, forewings similar to male. Larva yellow with black spots. First abdominal segment with a median dorsal rounded protuberance close covered apically with short black hairs. Head and prothoracic shield are brown. The larvae feed on Elaeagnus species. Acronicta is a genus of noctuid moths containing about 150 species distributed mainly in the temperate Holarctic, with some in adjacent subtropical regions. The genus was erected by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae. Caterpillars of most Acronicta species are unmistakable, with brightly colored hairy spikes, and often feed quite visibly on common foliate trees. The hairy spikes may contain poison, which cause itchy, painful, swollen rash in humans on contact. The larva of the smeared dagger moth (A. oblinita) is unusually hairy even for this genus. Acronicta species are generally known as dagger moths, as most have one or more black dagger-shaped markings on their forewing uppersides. But some species have a conspicuous dark ring marking instead. Its eyes are naked and without eyelashes. The proboscis is fully developed. Antennae are simple in both sexes. Thorax and abdomen tuftless. Abdomen with long coarse hair on the dorsal part of proximal segments. Legs spineless. Forewings with non-crenulate cilia. Inner margin slightly lobed towards base.