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Noctuidae - Acontiinae
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Spragueia onagrus (Guenée) Agrophila onagrus Guenée, 1852, Historie Naturelle des Insectes. Species General des Lépidoptéres, 6:205, pl. 10, fig. 2. Diagnosis: This species has an overall orange appearance with prominent dark stripes. There is no sexual dimorphism in onagrus. The basal half of the forewing has a conspicuous ovate-shaped pattern consisting of a yellow-white oval outlined with dark gray-brown, curved lines marking the upper and lower margins. The center of the oval is crossed by a broad, dark gray-brown, horizontal stripe. The postmedial line is a broad, orange band and the reniform is located within the orange and margined at the top by the light yellow-white costal margin. A constricted dark gray-brown, vertical band is found in the subterminal area. The costal has dark gray-brown spots in the area of the postmedial, subterminal, and terminal lines. The fringe is dark gray-brown except for the lower outer angle of the forewing. The hindwing is all dark smokey brown. The top of the thorax is gray-brown, but the sides and foreward margin are orange. The abdomen is band with yellow-white. Wing length from base to apex in one selected individual 8 mm. Distribution: Identification Quality: Good Larva: Foodplants: Spragueia onagrus has the following foodplants listed: Baccharis halimifolia (Asteraceae), Castanea pumila (Fagaceae), and Zea mays (Poaceae) (HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants, British Museum of Natural History, 2009).
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Spragueia onagrus
Spragueia onagrus is most likely to be confused with Spragueia leo. Spragueia leo lacks the ovate pattern of onagrus and instead has a dark gray-brown horizontal stripe. The antemedial line is clearly present in leo, but absent in onagrus. The postmedial line of onagrus is wide and clearly interrupts the horizontal, medial brown stripe, but is narrower and interrupted in leo. Finally the reniform is contained within the orange in onagrus, but is surrouned by dark gray-brown in leo. |
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