Shoulder-striped wainscot

Shoulder-striped wainscot
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Superfamily:	Noctuoidea
Family:	Noctuidae
Genus:	Leucania
Species:	L. comma
Binomial name
	Leucania comma; (Linnaeus, 1761)
Synonyms
	Aletia comma; Mythimna comma;

Last updated July 08, 2023

The shoulder-striped wainscot (Leucania comma) 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 forewings of this species share the pale buffish ground colour and prominent venation of other "wainscots" but has much stronger dark markings than most of its relatives, including a thick black basal streak which gives it its common name. The hindwings are dingy grey or brown with lighter fringes.

Technical description and variation

The wingspan is 35–42 mm. Forewing drab grey, suffused, except along costa and inner margin, and in an oblique fascia-form submarginal area, with blackish, the veins and folds remaining pale; a whitish lunule on discocellular: the pale submarginal fascia externally throw's off pale teeth along the veins to termen, the wedge shaped intervals being filled in with black; a long black streak from base below cell; median vein white, with only a small white spot at end of cell and a minute black point above it; veins whitish with black terminal streaks in the intervals. Hindwing dark greyish, fuscous.^[1]

Biology

This species flies at night in June and July^[2] and is attracted to light and sugar.

Larvae are reddish brown, with scattered black clots: dorsal and subdorsal lines black and fine; venter paler; thoracic plate black with three white lines; head brown. The larvae feed on various grasses including Deschampsia and Festuca .^[3] The species overwinters as a full-grown larva in a cell beneath the surface of the soil.

Related Research Articles

The garden dart 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, as well as in Macaronesia.

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<i>Cerapteryx graminis</i> Species of moth

Cerapteryx graminis, the antler moth, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It is a common species throughout most of Europe but is lacking in the very dry southern regions. The northernmost occurrence is Iceland, and above the Arctic circle. It also occurs in Siberia and in North Mongolia. The species has been introduced to North America. In the Alps it rises to an altitude of 2100 meters.

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.

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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.

Mythimna l-album, the L-album wainscot, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1767 12th edition of Systema Naturae. It is distributed throughout Europe, but is also found in North Africa from Morocco to Tunisia and in the Levant, then east across the Palearctic to Central Asia. It is not found in the far north of the Arabian Peninsula. The limit in the north varies. It occurs on the northern edge of the range as a migrant. From southern England, then Denmark and southern Scandinavia, the north limit cuts across the Baltic Sea across the Baltic states then south of Moscow to the Urals.

Fissipunctia ypsillon, the dingy shears, is a species of moth of the family Noctuidae. It is found in the Palearctic realm.

Mythimna pudorina, the striped wainscot, is a species of moth of the family Noctuidae. It is found in the Palearctic realm. Also Armenia, Asia Minor and eastern Siberia.

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

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 straminea, the southern wainscot, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Georg Friedrich Treitschke in 1825. It is found in the western parts of the Palearctic realm, including Morocco, Europe, Turkey, the Caucasus, Israel, and Lebanon.

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.

Mythimna obsoleta, the obscure wainscot, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Jacob Hübner in 1803. It is found in Europe, from southern Fennoscandia to Spain, Italy and the Balkans, the European part of Russia, the Caucasus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzia, southern Siberia, Turkey, the Ural, Mongolia, the Russian Far East, the Korean Peninsula, China and Hokkaido and Honshu in 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.

Nycteola revayana, the oak nycteoline, is a moth of the family Nolidae. The species was first described by Giovanni Antonio Scopoli in 1772. It is found from Europe and east across the Palearctic to Japan and India.

Eublemma ostrina, the purple marbled, is a moth of the family Erebidae. The species was first described by Jacob Hübner in 1808. It is mainly found in central and southern Europe, and further east, but is also a scarce migrant in the United Kingdom, where it is mainly found along the south coast.

The double-spot brocade is a species of moth of the family Noctuidae. It is found in most of Europe, in Turkey and the west of Iran. In Anatolia it is represented by the subspecies Meganephria bimaculosa pontica.

Sideridis turbida, the white colon, is a moth of the family Noctuidae, subfamily Hadeninae. It is found throughout continental Europe, the British Isles and southern Scandinavia.

The Brighton wainscot is a moth of the family Noctuidae.

References

↑ 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.
↑ 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.

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

External links

Media related to Leucania comma at Wikimedia Commons

Kimber, Ian. "73.301 BF2205 Shoulder-striped Wainscot Leucania comma (Linnaeus, 1761)". UKMoths. Retrieved 5 July 2019.
Savela, Markku. "Leucania comma (Linnaeus, 1761)". Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms. Retrieved July 5, 2019. Taxonomy
Lepiforum e.V.
De Vlinderstichting (in Dutch)

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

[3] 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.

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