Protolampra sobrina

For other uses of the phrase "cousin german", see cousin-german.

Protolampra sobrina, the cousin german, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Philogène Auguste Joseph Duponchel in 1843. It is found in most of Europe, then east across the Palearctic to Siberia, Altai, Irkutsk, Kamchatka and Korea.

Protolampra sobrina
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Superfamily:	Noctuoidea
Family:	Noctuidae
Genus:	Protolampra
Species:	P. sobrina
Binomial name
Protolampra sobrina (Duponchel, 1843)
Synonyms
Noctua sobrina Duponchel, 1843 Noctua mista Freyer, [1844] Noctua lapponica Freyer, 1845 Noctua gruneri Guenée, 1852 Noctua suffusa Tutt, 1892

The wingspan is 34–39 mm. Meyrick describes it - Antennae in male shortly ciliated. Head deep ferruginous-reddish. Forewings rather dark purplish-brown; lines very indistinctly darker-margined, median shade faintly darker; orbicular and reniform indistinctly outlined with darker, lower end of reniform darker; subterminal line somewhat paler. Hindwings light fuscous, darker terminally. Larva brown-reddish; sides grey-freckled; dorsal and subspiracular lines pale; dots minute, black; head brownish ochreous.^[1]

Similar species

Protolampra sobrina is difficult to certainly distinguish from its congeners. See Townsend et al.^[2]

• Diarsia mendica ssp. mendica (Fabricius, 1775)
• Diarsia mendica ssp. thulei (Staudinger, 1891)
• Diarsia mendica ssp. orkneyensis (Bytinski-Salz, 1930)
• Diarsia rubi (Vieweg, 1790)
• Diarsia florida (Schmidt, 1859)

Figs. 1, 1a, 1b, 1c larvae in various stages

The larvae feed on Rosa acicularis, Sorbus aucuparia, Calluna vulgaris and Vaccinium uliginosum. Adults are on wing from July to August.