Biology:Eurois occulta

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Short description: Species of moth

Eurois occulta
Eurois occulta.jpg
Eurois occulta.01.jpg
Scientific classification edit
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Superfamily: Noctuoidea
Family: Noctuidae
Genus: Eurois
Species:
E. occulta
Binomial name
Eurois occulta

Eurois occulta, the great brocade or great gray dart, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It is found in northern and central Europe, North Asia and central Asia to the Pacific Ocean and Japan . Also the northern parts of North America (coast to coast in Canada , south in east to Virginia and the Great Lakes states) ( a Holarctic distribution). In addition, it is found in Greenland and Iceland. In the south in northern Spain and on the Balkan peninsula.

Illustration from John Curtis's British Entomology Volume 5

Description

The wingspan is 50–60 mm. Forewing pale grey, more or less suffused with dark grey; a black streak from base below cell; stigmata large, grey, with black outlines, the cell dark: inner and outer lines filled in with whitish; submarginal line formed of large black and white teeth; hindwing fuscous, the fringe white. This fine species occurs - The form implicata is nearly black, a mountain form, found in Finland, on the Harz Mts. in Germany, and in Scotland. — ab. extricata Zett. from Lapland is an intermediate form.[1]

It has been suggested, based partly on pupal remains in peat, that outbreaks of this species played a role in the collapse of Norse settlements in Greenland.[2][3] These deposits at Anavik are now dried out and any potential evidence has been lost.

Larva brown, darker-mottled: dorsal and subdorsal lines yellowish; spiracular white; a series of oblique lateral dark stripes; on various low plants. The larvae feed on Myrica gale, Vaccinium, birch, willow and other herbaceous plants. .[4]

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. Iversen, J. (1934). Moorgeologische Untersuchungen auf Grönland. Meddelelser fra Geologiske Foreningen 8: 342-358
  3. Iversen, J. (1954). Origin of the flora of western Greenland in the light of pollen analysis. Oikos 4: 85-103
  4. "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.". http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/research/projects/hostplants/. 

External links

Wikidata ☰ Q948907 entry