Apamea sordens

Rustic shoulder-knot
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Superfamily:	Noctuoidea
Family:	Noctuidae
Genus:	Apamea
Species:	A. sordens
Binomial name
	Apamea sordens; (Hufnagel, 1766)
Synonyms
	Apamea basilinea; Apamea finitima; Hadena cinefacta; Noctua basilinea; Noctua nebulosa; Phalaena sordens;

Last updated December 17, 2024

Apamea sordens, the rustic shoulder-knot or bordered apamea, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Johann Siegfried Hufnagel in 1766. It is distributed throughout Europe, east across the Palearctic to Central Asia and to China and Japan. It also occurs in North America (Labrador to Virginia, west across Canada, south to Minnesota).

This moth has a wingspan of 36 to 42 mm. The forewings are brown with mostly indistinct markings except for the narrow black mark at the base of the wing which gives the species its common name. The hindwings are greyish brown, darker towards the margins, with prominent dark venation. This moth flies at night and is attracted to light and sugar.

Technical description and variation

Forewing dull lilac grey, flushed with fawn colour, especially in median area; a black, semibifid streak from base below cell; lines brownish, double, indistinct; the median shade dark grey or fawn colour, diffuse and prominent; orbicular stigma pale, black-edged; reniform large with grey centre, blackish in lower lobe, with pale annulus and black outline; claviform small, with dark outline; submarginal line dull, with darker shades in places on each side; hindwing greyish fuscous, paler towards base; — in basistriga Stgr. the ground colour is bluish grey except the median area, and the black basal streak is stronger; this form is recorded from western Turkestan , eastern Siberia, Japan, and China, also from Norway; a small series from Pescocostanzo, Italy, seems referable here; — ab. grisescens Stgr. from Tibet and Turkestan is altogether paler and greyer; — ab. unicolor Tutt is a melanistic form from the north of England, in which the ground is dark reddish brown with a purplish tinge, the stigmata and lines more or less obscured; hindwing much darker; — pallida Tutt and cinerascens Tutt are both grey forms without any rufous admixture, the former being pale ochreous grey, and the latter dull ashy grey, the one from Ireland, the other from northern England; this latter form probably occurs, however, in other localities, and is distinct from Staudinger's Central Asiatic form grisescens, for which Spuler quotes Finland and Esthland with a ? as localities. .^[1]

Its flight season in the British Isles is May and June.

The larva feeds on various grasses, including oats, fescues, barleys, canarygrasses, timothy, ryes, wheats, and wild rice.^[2] This species overwinters as a larva, feeding in mild weather throughout the season. it is grey brown with black tubercles; dorsal line broad, whitish; subdorsal finer; spiracular line broadly whitish, edged above with dark; feeding when quite young in autumn in the grains of corn and after hibernation in the fresh lower leaves and on grasses.

Its habitat includes fields, grasslands, and steppe.

Subspecies

Apamea sordens finitima (formerly A. finitima)^[3]
Apamea sordens cerivana (Alberta)
Apamea sordens sableanaMikkola, 2009

Notes

↑ 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
↑ Robinson, Gaden S.; Ackery, Phillip R.; Kitching, Ian J.; Beccaloni, George W.; Hernández, Luis M. (2010). "Search the database - introduction and help". HOSTS - A Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants. Natural History Museum, London.
↑ Anweiler, G. G. (2007). "Species Details Apamea sordens finitima". University of Alberta Museums. E.H. Strickland Entomological Museum. Retrieved November 8, 2020.

Related Research Articles

The autumnal rustic is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Eugenius Johann Christoph Esper in 1788. It was previously placed in the genus Paradiarsia. It is found in northern and western Europe and North Africa.

The square-spot rustic is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It is found in Europe, North Africa and east across the Palearctic and in North America.

The minor shoulder-knot is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Johan Christian Fabricius in 1776. It is distributed throughout Europe then east across the Palearctic to Siberia and Japan. It also occurs in Turkey.

Apamea monoglypha, the dark arches, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Johann Siegfried Hufnagel in 1766. It is a common, sometimes abundant, European species. It is found in most of Europe except northernmost Fennoscandia and the southern parts of the Iberian Peninsula and Greece. The species is also found in Anatolia, Turkestan, Western Asia and Central Asia, Siberia and Mongolia. In the Alps it is found up to heights of 2,500 meters. The smaller subspecies sardoa is found on Sardinia and Corsica.

Apamea crenata, known as the clouded-bordered brindle, is a moth in the family Noctuidae. It is distributed throughout the Palearctic realm. In the North it crosses the Arctic Circle, in the Mediterranean it is found only in cool locations and mountains avoiding very hot areas. In the Alps, it rises to an altitude of about 2000 metres.

Caradrina morpheus, the mottled rustic, is a moth of the superfamily Noctuoidea. The species was first described by Johann Siegfried Hufnagel in 1766. It is found across the Palearctic from northern Europe to Siberia, Amur and Korea. Also in Armenia and Turkestan. It was accidentally introduced on both the east and west coasts of Canada and is so far reported in the east from New Brunswick to Ontario, and in the west from British Columbia.

Ceramica pisi, the broom moth, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It is found in all of Europe, East across the Palearctic to Siberia and the Russian Far East. In the north, it is found far beyond the Arctic Circle and in the south to northern Spain. In the Alps, it is found at heights of up to 2,000 metres.

Xestia baja, the dotted clay, is a species of moth of the family Noctuidae. It is found in Europe, Turkey, northern Iran, Transcaucasia, the Caucasus, central Asia, Siberia, Mongolia, Tibet, China, Korea and Japan.

Cucullia argentea, the green silver-spangled shark, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Johann Siegfried Hufnagel in 1766. It is found in southern and central Europe through Siberia, Mongolia and Manchuria up to Korea and Japan.

Mesapamea secalis, the common rustic, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae. It is found in Europe, north-west Africa, Turkey and northern Iran.

Agrotis cinerea, the light feathered rustic, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Michael Denis and Ignaz Schiffermüller in 1775. It is found in southern and central Europe, northern Turkey, the Caucasus, western Turkmenia and Central Asia.

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 realm from Ireland east, through to Russia, Siberia, the Altai Mountains and the Amur region, and is also present in the Mediterranean Basin. It is absent from the north of Finland and Norway.

Agrochola litura, the brown-spot pinion, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1761. It is found in Europe and the Middle East. It is possibly also present in North Africa, but this is unclear because similar looking species Agrochola meridionalis is found there.

Agrochola helvola, the flounced chestnut, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae. The species is found in most of Europe, north to Scotland and Fennoscandia up to the Arctic Circle, south to Spain, Sicily, Greece further east to the Middle East, Armenia, Asia Minor, western Turkestan and central Asia up to central Siberia.

Apamea zeta is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It has a Holarctic distribution, and can be found throughout the Northern Hemisphere. It occurs throughout Europe and the northern half of North America.

Rhyacia simulans, the dotted rustic, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Johann Siegfried Hufnagel in 1766. It is found in most of Europe, south to Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, east to Turkey, the Caucasus, Tomsk and Minusinsk.

Epipsilia grisescens is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It is found in Fennoscandia, Denmark as well as the Pyrenees, Alps, Apennines, Balkans and Carpathians. In the Alps it is found up to 2,000 meters.

Apamea oblonga, the crescent striped, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Adrian Hardy Haworth in 1809. It is found in northern and central Europe, east to southern Russia, Asia Minor, Armenia, Turkestan, Turkey, Iran, southern Siberia, northern Pakistan, Mongolia, China, Sakhalin and Japan

Denticucullus pygmina, the small wainscot, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It is found in most of Europe, ranging from northern Spain, through Portugal as far north as Finland. In the east it is found across the Palearctic to the Russian Far East and western Siberia. It is also found in North Africa, Turkey, the Caucasus region and northern Iran.

Polia nebulosa, the grey arches, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Johann Siegfried Hufnagel in 1766. It is found in temperate Europe and Asia up to eastern Asia and Japan. It is not present in northernmost Fennoscandia and the southern parts of the Iberian Peninsula, Italy and Greece. In the Alps it is found at heights up to 1,600 meters.

References

Chinery, Michael Collins Guide to the Insects of Britain and Western Europe. 1986 (Reprinted 1991).
Skinner, Bernard The Colour Identification Guide to Moths of the British Isles . 1984.

External links

Kimber, Ian. "73.158 BF2334 Rustic Shoulder-knot Apamea sordens (Hufnagel, 1766)". UKMoths. Retrieved 28 June 2019.
Savela, Markku. "Apamea sordens (Hufnagel, 1766)". Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms. Retrieved 28 June 2019. Taxonomy
McLeod, Robin (April 3, 2012). "Species Apamea sordens - Rustic Shoulder-knot - Hodges#9364". BugGuide. Retrieved June 28, 2019.
Lepiforum e.V.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[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. (2010). "Search the database - introduction and help". HOSTS - A Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants. Natural History Museum, London.

[alb-3] Anweiler, G. G. (2007). "Species Details Apamea sordens finitima". University of Alberta Museums. E.H. Strickland Entomological Museum. Retrieved November 8, 2020.

[1]

[2]

[3]