Species Proxenus miranda - Miranda Moth - Hodges#9647

9647

Glistening Rustic

Athetis miranda

Proxenus was designated a junior synonym of Athetis by Robert Poole in 1989 (Butterflies and Moths of the World) but it appears that other sources disagree with Poole's action, as a number of web sites continue to treat Proxenus as a valid genus, including the All-Leps site, the taxonomic reference that BugGuide follows.

MIRANDA: named after the daughter of the magician Prospero in Shakespeare's play The Tempest. (Miranda is also the name of a satellite of Uranus but the satellite was not discovered until 1948, long after the moth was named by Grote in 1873.)

one of three species in this genus in North America listed at All-Leps

wingspan 23-27 mm

Adult: forewing shiny dark gray to blackish, faintly speckled with medium gray; may or may not show black antemedial (AM) and postmedial (PM) lines, which in any case are inconspicuous against the blackish ground color; small white dot usually present in area of reniform spot; hindwing whitish, shading to gray near outer margin

throughout North America except Florida and the gulf states, Newfoundland, and the arctic

wooded areas, meadows, gardens, suburban yards; adults are nocturnal and come to light

adults fly from May to October; June to August in Alberta

larvae feed on the leaves of cantaloupe, dandelion, sugar beet, strawberry, sweet potato, and have also been found under matted alfalfa

two generations per year

Proxenus mendosa and P. mindara forewings are light to medium brown, not dark gray to blackish (compare images of all three species at CBIF)

Moth Photographers Group

Pacific Northwest Moths