''Apamea ophiogramma'', the double lobed, 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 ...

. It is found in the

Palearctic realm The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Sibe ...

in North and Central

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

to the

Urals The Ural Mountains ( ; rus, Ура́льские го́ры, r=Uralskiye gory, p=ʊˈralʲskʲɪjə ˈɡorɨ; ba, Урал тауҙары) or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through European ...

Turkestan Turkestan, also spelled Turkistan ( fa, ترکستان, Torkestân, lit=Land of the Turks), is a historical region in Central Asia corresponding to the regions of Transoxiana and Xinjiang. Overview Known as Turan to the Persians, western Turke ...

Russian Far East The Russian Far East (russian: Дальний Восток России, r=Dal'niy Vostok Rossii, p=ˈdalʲnʲɪj vɐˈstok rɐˈsʲiɪ) is a region in Northeast Asia. It is the easternmost part of Russia and the Asian continent; and is admini ...

, and

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...

. There have been at least two separate introductions into

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

(Troubridge et al. 1992) and it is now rapidly expanding in range. This species is sometimes placed in the

monotypic genus In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...

''Lateroligia''.

Technical description and variation

This moth has a

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 ...

of 32 to 35 mm. The forewings are 13 to 16 mm long. Forewing pale ochreous suffused with olive grey along inner margin and in terminal area with pale brownish; the inner and outer lines brown, conversely lunulate-dentate; the upper half of median area occupied by a red-brown or black brown blotch bilobed below, the lower lobe being formed by the dark brown claviform stigma; the upper stigmata somewhat paler and with pale annuli; the patch extends narrowly along costa to base and has its lower edge often lined with white scales; submarginal line pale, generally enlarged into an apical spot, preceded by a rufous brown shade and followed by two grey brown patches on the two folds, that on submedian being generally produced inwards to outer line; hindwing pale grey with dark cellspot and veins.

Biology

This moth flies at night and is attracted to light and sugar. Its flight season in the

British Isles The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isles, ...

is June through August. Larva pinkish ochreous with a pale lateral line; the tubercles black; head yellow brown; thoracic and anal plates black brown. The

larva A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. The ...

feeds and overwinters on

reed canary-grass ''Phalaris arundinacea'', or reed canary grass, is a tall, perennial bunchgrass that commonly forms extensive single-species stands along the margins of lakes and streams and in wet open areas, with a wide distribution in Europe, Asia, northern ...

(''Phalaris arundinacea''), '' Glyceria spectabilis'' and

reed sweet-grass ''Glyceria maxima'' (syn. ''G. aquatica'' (L.) Wahlenb.; ''G. spectabilis'' Mert. & W.D.J. Koch; ''Molinia maxima'' Hartm.; ''Poa aquatica'' L.), commonly known as great manna grass, reed mannagrass, reed sweet-grass, and greater sweet-grass is a ...

(''Glyceria maxima'').

References

External links

UK Moths
Taxonomy as

subgenus In biology, a subgenus (plural: subgenera) is a taxonomic rank directly below genus. In the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, a subgeneric name can be used independently or included in a species name, in parentheses, placed between t ...

of ''Apamaea''
Lepiforum.deVlindernet.nl waarneming.nl

ophiogramma ''Ophiogramma'' is a genus of moths in the family Geometridae first described by Jacob Hübner in 1831. Species *'' Ophiogramma coenobiata'' (Felder & Rogenhofer, 1875) *'' Ophiogramma injunctaria'' Hübner, 831 __NOTOC__ Year 831 ( DCCCXXX ...

Moths of Europe Moths of Asia Moths described in 1793 Taxa named by Eugenius Johann Christoph Esper {{Apamea-stub