red underwing
- noun
:
mariposa de alas rojas
- She photographed a stunning red underwing moth resting on a leaf last summer.
Examples
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Naturalists admire the vivid colors displayed when a red underwing opens its wings.
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The red underwing is often spotted resting on tree trunks, blending in until disturbed.
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She photographed a beautiful red underwing in her garden last summer.
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The red underwing is often seen in late summer.
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Have you ever spotted a red underwing moth?
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Naturalists admire the vivid colors displayed when a red underwing opens its wings.
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The red underwing often blends into the bark of trees, making it hard to spot.
Synonyms
A moth with dull front wings and bright red back wings
A moth with dull front wings and bright back wings that it shows when threatened
A group of moths with bright patterned underwings
How Red
- UK
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun is compositionally transparent: 'red' simply modifies 'underwing' (an underwing moth), so a learner who knows both words will infer it denotes an underwing moth with red hindwings. This follows a regular adjective + noun pattern and is cross-linguistically straightforward, so it should be immediately comprehensible to a B1 learner.
Etymology
The noun red underwing comes from a moth that hides bright red patches on the back part of its wings beneath dull front wings. When it opens its wings the sudden flash of red under the outer wing can scare birds, so the name shows the 'red' that sits 'under' the main wing.
