Acronicta alni

Acronicta alni, the alder moth, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It is found in Europe (from southern Fennoscandia to Spain, Italy and the Balkans), Turkey, the European part of Russia and the neighbouring countries, the Caucasus, the Ural, southern Siberia, Transbaikalia, the Russian Far East (Primorye, Sakhalin, southern Kuriles, Khabarovsk and the Amur region), China, Japan (Hokkaido and Honshu) and the Korean Peninsula.

  • Acronicta alni
  • Caterpillar
  • Caterpillar on leaf

Acronicta alni
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Superfamily: Noctuoidea
Family: Noctuidae
Genus: Acronicta
Species:
A. alni
Binomial name
Acronicta alni
(Linnaeus, 1767)
Synonyms
  • Phalaena alni Linnaeus, 1767

The wingspan is 33–38 mm. Forewing pale grey; inner margin and a broad median shade black; hindwing white. In the ab. steinerti Cusp, the ground colour is dark brownish grey; ab. carola Phil, representing an intermediate form; in ab. suffusa Tutt the two pale patches are as dark as the rest of wing; in ab. obsoleta Tutt the orbicular stigma is wanting.[1]

The adults fly at night from May to June and are attracted to light.

The larva when young resembles a bird dropping at first. When mature the larva is black and yellow with a number of hairs. It feeds on a number of different trees, particularly alder and birch.

Further reading
  • South R. (1907) The Moths of the British Isles, (First Series), Frederick Warne & Co. Ltd., London & NY: 359 pp. online

Notes
  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
  • ^ The flight season refers to the British Isles. This may vary in other parts of the range.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.