Acontia lucida
| Acontia lucida | |
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| Acontia lucida. Dorsal view | |
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| Species: | A. lucida
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| Binomial name | |
| Acontia lucida (Hufnagel, 1766)
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The Pale Shoulder (Acontia lucida) is a moth of the Noctuidae family.[2]
Distribution and habitat
This species can be found in most of Europe, east to Turkey, Iran and India. It has also been recorded from Algeria. It is a rare migrant to the south coast of Great Britain.[3][4] Pale Shoulder live in grasslands, waste lands, dry meadows, steppes, dunes and roadsides, where the host plants are present.[5]
Description
The wingspan of Acontia lucida can reach 26–30 mm. Head, thorax and abdomen are white. The forewings show a greyish white front part and a wide dark brown median band, dark-mottled and marbled, larger in the centre. A white mark is present on the outer edge of the forewings, while a brown mark is close to the apex. Hindwings are whitish-fuscous, with a brown band near the apex. Larvae are green or brown, with transversal whitish bands.[4][5][6]
Biology
The larvae are polyphagous, feeding on various herbaceous plants, mainly on mallow (Malva species), common marshmallow (Althaea officinalis), field bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis), goosefoots (Chenopodium) and dandelion (Taraxacum). Adults are on wing on sunny days in May and August in two generations.[4] They are attracted to light. This species overwinters as chrysalis below ground.[5] Rarely it is a migrant species.[7]
References
External links
- Paolo Mazzei, Daniel Morel, Raniero Panfili Moths and Butterflies of Europe and North Africa
- Lepiforum
- Encyclopedia of life
- Acontia lucida in Germany 2013 - picture
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