miller moth

plural miller moths

1. Any of several species of moths with pale, dusty wings.

   One of those small white moths, known as '• millers," went past him. […]. Even the miller-moth had gone.

   1890, Juliana Horatia Gatty Ewing, Jan of the Windmill: A Story of the Plains, page 29

   2 more examples

   [H]e saw one of those great white miller's souls as we call 'em—that is to say, a miller-moth—come from William's open mouth while he slept, and fly straight away.

   1894, Thomas Hardy, “[A Few Crusted Characters.] The Superstitious Man’s Story”, in Life’s Little Ironies […], London: Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., […], →OCLC, pages 253–254

   They caught a large moth called a miller for its dusty white wings, […] after which they crushed the miller-moth for his misdeeds.

   1984, Steven Laurence Kaplan, Provisioning Paris: Merchants and Millers in the Grain and Flour Trade, page 284

   1. Any of the cutworm moths in genus Agrotis or in tribe Agrotini,
   2. especially an army cutworm (Euxoa auxiliaris), in America.
2. Any moth of species Acronicta leporina, in Britain.
3. A goat moth (Cossus cossus).