Agrotis trux

Agrotis trux
female
male
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Noctuidae
Genus: Agrotis
Species: A. trux
Binomial name
Agrotis trux
(Hübner, [1824])
Synonyms
  • Noctua trux Hübner, [1824]
  • Agrotis lenticulosa Duponchel, 1826
  • Agrotis lunigera Stephens, 1829
  • Agrotis terranea Freyer, 1831
  • Agrotis amasina Staudinger, 1901
  • Agrotis subalba Corti & Draudt, 1933 (preocc.)
  • Agrotis adolfi Corti & Draudt,1933

The Crescent Dart (Agrotis trux) is a moth of the Noctuidae family. It has a Circum-Mediterranean distribution and is found along the coasts of France, Ireland, England, South Europe, Algeria, Syria, Iraq, Iran South Russia and the Arabian Peninsula. In Africa, it is found as far south as South Africa.

Description

See glossary for terms used

The wingspan is 35–42 mm. Forewing ochreous grey, dappled and striated, and often, especially in the females, suffused with dark fuscous; claviform stigma black-edged; reniform large, filled in with black; orbicular small, round, with a pale ring; fringe rufous; hindwing dull whitish, with fuscous terminal suffusion, broader in female; or with a curved row of dark dashes on veins and no suffusion; a variable species, occurring throughout S. Europe, in Algeria, the Canaries, S. Russia and Asia Minor; — in ab. olivina Stgr. the forewing is smooth olivegrey, with no or little irroration, the markings concisely red-brown: - ab. terranea Frr. has the suffusion and markings rufous; — ab. amasina Stgr. is fuscous grey, with blackish median shade, the ground colour darker in the female; — subsp. lunigera Stph. Forewing fuscous or pale grey, varied with yellowish; the lines distinct; orbicular stigma small; reniform large, and blackish; claviform black; occurs on the south coast of England and Ireland; — ab. pallida Tutt is whitish grey with a slaty tinge, not irrorated with yellow; — ab. virgata Tutt with a dark shade before reniform stigma and the outer third of wing dark; — ab. suffusa Tutt has the whole wing suffused with , blackish grey, except the pale orbicular and a small patch between reniform and outer line; — ab. nigra Tutt has the forewing unicolorous blackish, the lines and stigmata more intense, the orbicular sometimes visible ; — and ab. rufescens Tutt like the type but tinged throughout with reddish.[1]

Habitat. Rodini Park, Rhodes, Greece

Biology

Adults are on wing in September to April. There is one generation per year.

The larvae feed on the roots of various herbaceous plants, including Taraxacum and Polygonum.[2]

Subspecies

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, G. S., P. R. Ackery, I. J. Kitching, G. W. Beccaloni & L. M. Hernández, 2010. HOSTS - A Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants. Natural History Museum, London.".

External links