11 June 2014

11 June 2014 – Typo

Bright-line Brown-eye (Lacanobia oleracea)

The moth that lives on vegetables (lakhana meaning ‘greens’) consumes the roots of vegetables (oleraceus).  This moth was named with a typo – lacanobia should read as lachanobia but it was never corrected.  The fact that its common name, Bright-line Brown-eye should be similar to Brown-line Bright-eye (Mythimna conigera) just adds to the confusion.

Specimens from York Museums Trust Allis Collection

Trying to identify it in the drawers from the Allis/Heron collection, a further complication can be seen – Diataraxia oleracea was the moth’s original Linnean binomial. 

Bright-line Brown-eye (Illustration)

Here, just for completion’s sake, is the illustration from 1843.  Not a new species but one that hasn’t appeared in the blog before.