| Shark | |
|---|---|
 | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Superfamily: | Noctuoidea |
| Family: | Erebidae |
| Genus: | Cucullia |
| Species: | C. umbratica |
| Binomial name | |
| Cucullia umbratica | |
| Synonyms | |
| |
The shark (Cucullia umbratica) is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae.
This species is widespread throughout much of the Palearctic realm (Europe, Russia, [1] Afghanistan, Turkestan, and Mongolia [2] ), but has recently also been reported from North America, from the Magdalen Islands in Canada. [3]
These moths inhabit a range of open environments such as heaths, meadows, forest edges, gardens, parks and suburban areas. [4]
Cucullia umbratica is a fairly large species, with a wingspan of 52–59 millimetres (2.0–2.3 in). These moths have long, narrow wings giving a streamlined appearance. The forewings are dull brownish grey, the cell and space beyond are paler, with dull greyish buff. A fine black line runs from the base below cell. The usual lines and stigmata are ill defined. Orbicular is represented by two or three dark points, reniform by a curved black line at lower end. Slight black dashes are present before termen, above vein 3 and below vein 2, and a longer black streak appears above middle of vein 4. The hindwings of male are white, with the veins and termen narrowly fuscous, while in the female thy are wholly brown, with paler base. [5] The larva is grey or brown with black spots.
This species is quite similar to the chamomile shark ( Cucullia chamomillae ), but it shows two bands, one pale and one grey, on the fringe of the hindwing, whereas in the last there are three bands. [4]
Adults fly in the dusk and in the evening from mid-May to mid-August and feed on nectar of a variety of flowers. They are attracted to light. Larvae feed mainly on sow thistles [4] and lettuces and others. The main recorded food plants are lady's bedstraw ( Galium ), hawkweed ( Hieracium ), catsear ( Hypochaeris ), lettuce ( Lactuca ), hawkbit ( Leontodon ), campion ( Silene ), sow thistle ( Sonchus ) and dandelion ( Taraxacum ). [2] [6] There is one generation per year (univoltine species). This species overwinters as a pupa.
The setaceous Hebrew character 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 the Palearctic realm. It is a common species throughout Europe and North Asia and Central Asia, South Asia, China, Japan and Korea. It is also found in North America, from coast to coast across Canada and the northern United States to western Alaska. It occurs in the Rocky Mountains from Montana to southern Arizona and New Mexico. In the east, it ranges from Maine to North Carolina. It has recently been recorded in Tennessee.
The Gothic 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 distributed in temperate Eurasia, in the Palearctic realm, including Europe, Turkey, Iran, Caucasus, Armenia, Transcaucasia, Central Asia, Altai mountains, and west and central Siberia.
The nutmeg, also known as the clover cutworm, is a moth of the family Noctuidae.
The bright-line brown-eye 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 a common species throughout Europe, but is also found in North Africa, temperate North Asia and Central Asia, Asia Minor, Syria, and Turkestan, northern India, China, Korea and Japan.
The Hebrew character is a moth in the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae. It is found throughout Europe.
Mythimna pallens, the common wainscot, is a moth of the family Noctuidae distributed throughout the Palearctic realm from Ireland in the west, through Europe to Central Asia and Amur to the Kuriles in the east. The species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae.
The shoulder-striped wainscot is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1761. Some authors place it in the genus Mythimna. It is found throughout Europe and in Russia to the west of the Urals.
The grey chi 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 distributed throughout Europe, although it is not present in southern Spain and Greece, as well as northern Fennoscandia. It is also found across the Palearctic including Central Asia, to the Russian Far East but not in Japan.
The small angle shades is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It is distributed throughout the Palearctic. The species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae.
The angle shades 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 distributed throughout Europe as far east as the Urals and also in the Azores, in Algeria, and in Asia Minor, Armenia, and Syria. It is strongly migratory.
The mullein moth is a noctuid moth with a Palearctic distribution. The species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae.
Mythimna albipuncta, the white-point, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Michael Denis and Ignaz Schiffermüller in 1775. It is distributed throughout Europe and one subspecies is found in Tunisia. It is also found in Asia Minor, Armenia, and Iran, and the northeastern United States.
Mormo maura, the old lady or black underwing, is a species of moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in the 10th edition of his Systema Naturae. It is found in the Palearctic realm, from north-western Africa through all over southern Europe. It reaches its northern border in the west in northern Ireland and central Scotland, in central Europe, in northern Germany and Poland. In some Nordic countries, there are single finds. The other occurrence areas include Turkestan, Anatolia, the Middle East and Iraq. The name "old lady" refers to the fact that the wing pattern was said to resemble the shawls worn by elderly Victorian ladies.
Cucullia asteris, or star-wort, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Michael Denis and Ignaz Schiffermüller in 1775. It is found through the Palearctic including Japan.
Allophyes oxyacanthae, the green-brindled crescent, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae. It is found in Europe.
Mythimna favicolor, or Mathew's wainscot, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Charles Golding Barrett in 1896. It is found in Europe. The species is sometimes treated as a subspecies of Mythimna pallens, the common wainscot.
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.
Cucullia lactucae, the lettuce shark, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Michael Denis and Ignaz Schiffermüller in 1775. It is found in most of Europe, Turkey, the Caucasus and east across the Palearctic to the Altai mountains. In the Alps it rises to 1,800 meters. It is found mainly in barren places, on weeds and debris and scree corridors on slopes, shrubby edges and in vineyards, gardens and parks.
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.
Cucullia absinthii, the wormwood, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1761. It is found from Europe to the Caucasus, Turkey, northern Iran, western Siberia, the Altai mountains, Tien-Shan and Tarbagatai.
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