1. A wing placed under, or partly covered by, another.
1535. Coverdale, 2 Esdras xii. 29. Thou sawest two vnderwinges vpon the heade that is on the right syde.
1801. Southey, Thalaba, III. xxxiii. The admiring girl survey’d His out-spread sails of green; His gauzy underwings.
1826. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., III. 380. The part … in many cases is connected with the posterior basal margin of the under-wings.
2. Used attrib., with adjs. of color, to designate various species of moths.
1749. Wilkes, Eng. Moths & Butterflies, 2. The great yellow-underwing moth. Ibid., 17. The willow red-underwing moth. Ibid., 23, 33.
1826. Kirby & Sp., Entomol., III. xxxi. 272. A red under-wing-moth (Noctua pacta).
1882. Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, IX. 559. One captured a Yellow Underwing Moth.
b. ellipt. = Underwing moth.
1819. Samouelle, Entomol. Compend., 418. Noctua Myrtilli. The beautiful yellow Underwing.
1832. Rennie, Consp. Butterfl. & M., 51. The Pearl Underwing (Agrotis æqua).
1871. Darwin, Desc. Man, II. xi. I. 394. The common yellow under-wings (Triphæna).
3. attrib. Situated beneath the wings.
1896. Daily News, 10 Jan., 6/7. The brightly-tinted varieties,… lined like the underwing feathers of tropical birds.
