''Agrochola haematidea'', the southern chestnut, is a

moth Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of w ...

of the family

Noctuidae The Noctuidae, commonly known as owlet moths, cutworms or armyworms, are a family of moths. They are considered the most controversial family in the superfamily Noctuoidea because many of the clades are constantly changing, along with the other f ...

. The species was first described by Philogène Auguste Joseph Duponchel in 1827. It is found in the southern parts of Europe (including the southernmost parts of

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

Technical description and variation

''A. haematidea'' Dup. (37 d). Forewing smooth, deep chestnut brown, darker along inner margin, paler in terminal area; cell and median shade deeper chestnut; lines indistinct, the outer double; submarginal line preceded by a row of small black marks and on costa by a blackish blotch; stigmata small, undefined, pale; the orbicular oblique nearly touching reniform at bottom; hindwing fuscous, the fringe pinkish. The forewing has the apex acute and termen oblique. Warren. W. in 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

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan of ...

is 32–38 mm.

Biology

The moth flies from October to November depending on the location. The larvae feed on ''

Erica cinerea ''Erica cinerea'', the bell heather, is a species of flowering plant in the heath family Ericaceae, native to western and central Europe. The plant provides a great deal of nectar for pollinators. It was rated in the top 5 for most nectar produ ...

'' and ''

Erica tetralix ''Erica tetralix'', the cross-leaved heath, is a species of flowering plant in the family Ericaceae, native to western Europe, from southern Portugal to central Norway, as well as a number of boggy regions further from the coast in Central Europe ...

''.

Notes

In England it was first discovered by Professor Colin Smith of Cambridge University.

References

External links

*
''Fauna Europaea''"09572 ''Agrochola haematidea'' (Duponchel, [1828])"
''Lepiforum e. V.'' Retrieved 21 January 2021. Agrochola">828])"">"09572 ''Agrochola haematidea'' (Duponchel, [1828])"
''Lepiforum e. V.'' Retrieved 21 January 2021. Agrochola Moths of Europe Moths described in 1827 Taxa named by Philogène Auguste Joseph Duponchel {{Xyleninae-stub