Agrotis vestigialis

Agrotis vestigialis, the archer's dart, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Johann Siegfried Hufnagel in 1766. It is found in most of the Palearctic ecozone from Ireland east, through to Russia, Siberia, the Altai mountains and the Amur region, and is also present in the Mediterranean area. It is absent from the north of Finland and Norway.

Male
Female

Archer's dart
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Superfamily: Noctuoidea
Family: Noctuidae
Genus: Agrotis
Species:
A. vestigialis
Binomial name
Agrotis vestigialis
(Hufnagel, 1766)
Synonyms
  • Phalaena vestigialis
  • Scotia vestigialis
  • Rhyacia vestigialis

Description
For a key to the terms used, see Glossary of entomology terms.

The wingspan is 30–35 mm. Forewing greyish ochreous, with olive-fuscous shading varied with whitish; stigmata large, outlined in black; claviform elongate, orbicular and reniform with fuscous centres in a pale ring; orbicular small, often conjoined to reniform; submarginal line preceded by black dentations; hindwing white, with brownish veins and margin; the female always darker, with the hindwing wholly brownish. In the typical form the markings are distinct on a pale grey ground; — ab. sagittiferus Haw. differs only in having the ground dark fuscous; — ab. clavis Esp. is pale reddish ochreous; the forms in which the markings are more or less obsolete differ similarly in colouration; — thus ab. signata has a pale grey ground; — ab. trigonalis Esp. is a small fuscous form with the stigmata large and outer margin dark; — and ab. nigra Tutt is blackish fuscous with the course of the median vein pale; — in ab. lineolata Tutt the wedge-shaped markings, usually submarginal only, extend through to the outer margin.[1]

Biology

Adults are on wing from July to September depending on the location.

The larvae feed on Galium and Stellaria species.[2]

gollark: Often I just use computer cases, though.
gollark: Which makes it MILDLY less annoying.
gollark: Being able to program microcontrollers is mildly cool, but it also means I have to wait for an electronics assembler, they can't interact with external components, and they're very irritating to debug (apparently *deliberately?!*). CC computers boot fairly quickly anyway.
gollark: CC workflow for setting up a computer to do things:- (auto)craft computer- place computer- write code/download code onto computer as startupOC workflow:- figure out what cards/other components it needs- queue autocrafting for everything- wait a while while autocrafting runs, and possibly converts some coal into diamonds- pull autocrafted stuff out of ME network, put into computers, be sure to get the right items- find openOS disk, disk drive- install openOS- write/download code- either move code to `boot` or work out how `rc` works
gollark: I play on servers. I can't just edit the recipes.

References
  1. Seitz, A. Ed., 1914 Die Großschmetterlinge der Erde, Verlag Alfred Kernen, Stuttgart Band 3: Abt. 1, Die Großschmetterlinge des palaearktischen Faunengebietes, Die palaearktischen eulenartigen Nachtfalter, 1914
  2. Robinson, Gaden S.; Ackery, Phillip R.; Kitching, Ian J.; Beccaloni, George W.; Hernández, Luis M. "Search the database - introduction and help". HOSTS - A Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants. Natural History Museum, London.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.