Garden dart

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Garden dart
Euxoa nigricans2.jpg
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Superfamily: Noctuoidea
Family: Noctuidae
Genus: Euxoa
Species:
E. nigricans
Binomial name
Euxoa nigricans
Linnaeus, 1761

The garden dart (Euxoa nigricans) is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It is distributed throughout much of the Palearctic. Temperate regions of Europe, Central Asia and North Asia, as well as the mountains of North Africa. Absent from polar regions, on Iceland and some Mediterranean islands (Balearic Islands, Malta, Greek Islands, Crete, Cyprus), as well as in Macaronesia (Azores, Madeira, Canary Islands).

Contents

Illustration Euxoa nigricans(1).jpg
Illustration

This is a rather drab species, forewings ranging from pale to dark brown with indistinct markings. The hindwings are white with a grey fringe. The wingspan is 32–40 mm. This moth flies at night in July and August and is attracted to light and many different flowers.

Euxoa nigricans Moscow oblast Euxoa nigricans - Garden dart - Zemlianaia sovka chernovataia (40379355764).jpg
Euxoa nigricans Moscow oblast

Technical description and variation

Forewing black brown with all markings obscured, or dark red-brown with the markings plainer; the edges of stigmata finely black; some ochreous scales on outside of reniform, along the course of submarginal line and at base below cell; hindwing brownish fuscous, the basal half paler in male. More than 20 aberrations are noted by Tutt, grouped, as usual, according to colouration; — the first two, with ground colour grey, are rare: -ab. pallida Tutt with a reddish tinge, and the lines and stigmata all but obsolete; — and ab. flavopallida Tutt, similar, but with the lines and stigmata yellow; -- the following 5 are pale reddish; — ab. rufa Tutt, with lines and stigmata pale: — ab. ruris Haw. with the markings yellow; — ab. obeliscata Haw. with cell black on each side of the orbicular stigma; — ab. striata Tutt with the base, stigmata, lines, and outer nervules yellow ochreous: — and ab. rufovariegata Tutt mottled red and yellow, the stigmata edged with black: — the next 5 are dark reddish brown; — ab. rubricans Esp. with the lines paler; — ab. rufovilis with stigmata and lines yellow; — ab. quadrata Tutt, like the last, but with a square black blotch between the stigmata, as in ab. obeliscata Haw.; — ab. ochrea Tutt, with faint lines but the stigmata and veins ochreous: — ab. fuscovariegata Tutt, purplish-brown mottled with ochreous and with the dark blotch between the stigmata: - in the next 4 the ground colour is blackish-brown or blackish fuscous, as in typical nigricans L.; — ab. dubia Haw. with lines and stigmata deeper, and with a conspicuous waved submarginal line: — ab. fumida smoky brown with ochreous reniform and yellowish submarginal line; — ab. marshallana sooty brown with dark lines and ochreous stigmata: — ab. ursina God. with lines and stigmata dark, a submarginal row of wedge-shaped spots and the outer edge of reniform stigma whitish; — ab. rustica Er. much smaller than the last, with the markings obsolete; — the last group has the ground colour black; — ab. carbonea Hbn. with lines and stigmata yellowish; — ab. fumata with the upper stigmata pale-edged; — ab fumosa F. with a submarginal row of whitish wedge-shaped spots; — and ab. fuliginea God. wholly black, with the very faintest of markings. [1] Euxoa nigricans is difficult to certainly distinguish from its congeners. See Townsend et al. [2]

Figs 1, 1a, 1b, 1c larva after last moult Buckler W The larvae of the British butterflies and moths PlateLXXII.jpg
Figs 1, 1a, 1b, 1c larva after last moult

Biology

Larva ochreous grey, paler, more greenish, at sides; lines greenish edged with black: the subspiracular line whitish and double; head with black speckling. The larva is green or brown with two white stripes down each side. It feeds on a range of plants (see list below). The species overwinters as an egg.

  1. ^ The flight season refers to the British Isles. This may vary in other parts of the range.

Recorded food plants

See Robinson, G. S. et al. [3]

Related Research Articles

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<i>Conistra erythrocephala</i> Species of moth

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<i>Agrochola lychnidis</i> Species of moth

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<i>Orthosia incerta</i> Species of moth

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<i>Luperina testacea</i> Species of moth

Luperina testacea, the flounced rustic, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It is found in Europe, Asia Minor and Armenia.

<i>Hypena rostralis</i> Species of moth

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<i>Euxoa obelisca</i> Species of moth

Euxoa obelisca, the square-spot dart, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It is found in the Palearctic realm.

<i>Enargia paleacea</i> Species of moth

Enargia paleacea, the angle-striped sallow, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It is found in the Palearctic realm from Ireland to Siberia East to Japan.

<i>Polia bombycina</i> Species of moth

Polia bombycina is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It is found in the Palearctic realm from Ireland to Japan including the Russian Far East and Siberia.

<i>Tiliacea aurago</i> Species of moth

The Barred Sallow(Tiliacea aurago) is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It is found in Europe.

<i>Xanthia gilvago</i> Species of moth

Xanthia gilvago, the dusky-lemon sallow, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Michael Denis and Ignaz Schiffermüller in 1775. It is found in Europe.

<i>Mesapamea secalis</i> Species of moth

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.

<i>Agrotis ripae</i> Species of moth

Agrotis ripae, the sand dart, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Jacob Hübner in 1823. It is found in western Europe and North Africa and extends east across the Palearctic to steppe areas in Russia, Mongolia and Siberia.

<i>Agrotis vestigialis</i> Species of moth

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.

<i>Agrotis trux</i> Species of moth

Agrotis trux, the crescent dart, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Jacob Hübner in 1824. It has a circum-Mediterranean distribution and is found along the coasts of France, Ireland, England, southern Europe, Algeria, Syria, Iraq, Iran, southern Russia and the Arabian Peninsula. In Africa, it is found as far south as South Africa.

<i>Agrochola litura</i> Species of moth

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.

<i>Apamea oblonga</i> Species of moth

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

<i>Leucochlaena oditis</i> Species of moth

The Beautiful Gothic(Leucochlaena oditis) is a Palearctic moth of the family Noctuidae, sub-family Cuculliinae. It is found in southern Europe and north Africa, with occasional finds on the southern coast of England.

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. ↑ Martin C. Townsend, Jon Clifton and Brian Goodey (2010). British and Irish Moths: An Illustrated Guide to Selected Difficult Species. (covering the use of genitalia characters and other features) Butterfly Conservation.
  3. ↑ "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".


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