Lasionycta promulsa

Crabo, Lars & Lafontaine, Donald, 2009, A Revision of Lasionycta Aurivillius (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) for North America and notes on Eurasian species, with descriptions of 17 new species, 6 new subspecies, a new genus, and two new species of Tricholita Grote, ZooKeys 30 (30), pp. 1-156 : 85

Lasionycta promulsa sub-group

The L. promulsa sub-group is comprised of five species from western North America characterized by brownish color and ventral hindwing pattern. All are gray brown, tan, or yellow brown. Th e ventral hindwing of most species has a smaller or thinner discal spot and less conspicuous marginal band than those of the L. leucocycla and L. phoca sub-groups. Th e species are similar in size to those in the L. phoca sub-group.

The male valve is relatively long and slender with a small to moderately sized cucullus. Th e corona is usually single, sometimes partially double at the apex. Th e digitus is oriented closer to the valve than in all other sub-groups except the L. subfuscula subgroup. Th e vesica usually has two adjacent subbasal cornuti, although the number of cornuti varies between zero and two, and the cornuti in the distal band are relatively short. Th e female genitalia are typical for the L. leucocycla species-group but have relatively large corpora bursae in most species (relatively small in L. macleani (McDunnough)) . Th e male antennae are strongly biserrate or bipectinate.

The CO1 sequences of all species except L. silacea , sp. n. are tightly clustered together with L. impingens (Walker) with only slight differences between species. Lasionycta impingens differs structurally from the L. promulsa species-group members and is placed in its own species-group below.