The Asiatic common looper,
Plusia nigrisigna WALKER, is one of the most common species which is harmful to various kinds of vegetables, especially to the cabbage at Fuchu district in Tokyo. It is also found from many prefectures and seems to be widely distributed over Japan.
The author has worked during these several years to clarify its bionomics and physiological natures, the results of which will be published in a series of papers. In the present paper, he wishes to deal with bibliography and nomenclature of this species, as well as to give description of all the stages.
The genus
Plusia (
sensu latu) OCHSENHEIMER (1816) has been split into many genera by HÜBNER (1821), MCDUNNOUGH (1944), CRUMB (1956) and other workers and the genus
Autographa HÜBNER (generotype:
gamma L.) has been applied by INOUE & SUGI (1958) to
Plusia nigrisigna WALKER. As a result of the author's studies on the larval characters, however, this species seems rather to belong to genus
Anagrapha MCDUNNOUGH but not to genus
Autographa. The revision of genus
Plusia (
s.l.) of Japan along these lines is yet almost impossible, for the details of larvae of most Japanese species remain still unknown. Consequently, for the present time, the author prefers to apply genus
Plusia (
s.l.) to this species.
The genus
Phytometra HAWORTH (1809) had already been applied to a group of different subfamily by WESTWOOD in 1840, far before HAMPSON (1913) designated
P. festucae as the type of
Phytometra. Therefore, the genus
Phytometra, though frequently used by many workers, is not applicable to any Plusiine species.
The author has met, in Japan, not a few fragmental reports on injuries by a species called “
Plusia (or
Phytometra)
gamma L.” He suspects, however, that this “
P. gamma L.” might be erroneous identification of
P. nigrisigna WALKER, for, as far as he has studied, no specimen of
Plusia (=
Autographa)
gamma has been found from Japan, and morever, it is highly possible to confound
P. nigrisigna with
P. gamma as they closely resemble each other in their morphological features (see Fig. 2: A∼D, and Pl. A∼F) and feeding habits. The comparison between these two species is as follows:
Comparison between
Plusia nigrisigna WALKER and
P. gamma LINNÉ
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