''Apamea zeta'' 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 has a

Holarctic The Holarctic realm is a biogeographic realm that comprises the majority of habitats found throughout the continents in the Northern Hemisphere. It corresponds to the floristic Boreal Kingdom. It includes both the Nearctic zoogeographical region ...

distribution, and can be found throughout the Northern Hemisphere. It occurs throughout

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 ...

and the northern half of North America.''Apamea zeta''.
Pacific Northwest Moths.

Technical description and variation

''C. zeta'' Tr. (41 e). Forewing dull grey green overlaid with hoary grey scales; inner and outer lines black, conversely edged with hoary grey and lunulate-dentate; the outer line sinuate, not indented below middle; stigmata grey edged with black, the two upper separated by the well marked blackish median shade; submarginal line pale, often broken up, indented on the folds, preceded by black wedge-shapedmarks; hindwing fuscous, paler towards base; the whole forewing has a mealy appearance, and in paler examples the markings are often much obscured; — ab. ''pernix'' Hbn.-C. (= ''clandestina'' Bsd.) (41 e), is the darkest form, with the markings plainest; — ''curoi'' Calb. (41 e), from Italy, is chalk grey, glossy, more like a very pale examples of platinea, with the lines and outlines of stigmata finely blackish grey, the median shade and submarginal line slightly marked in grey, the orbicular absent, and the reniform smaller; the head, thorax, and abdomen are as pale as the forewings and all without grey dusting; the hindwing pale dirty grey with dark cellspot and veins, and black marginal lunules; — ab. ''zetina'' Stgr., ow full species ''Haderonia zetina'' (Staudinger, 1900)from the Thian-Shan Mts., is described as smaller: the forewings greenish grey, with the markings distinct; a form with the whole forewing uniform grey without markings except the pale reniform, as far as subterminal line, which is conspicuously pale preceded by a dark shade, and with the terminal area beyond quite pale, from Silvaplana, in the Engadine, Switzerland, may be distinguished as ab. ''marginata'' ab. nov. (41 e); in ''transversata'' ab.nov. (41 e) the forewing shows the median shade crossing it as a strong blackish band; — in ''rivalis'' Guen. (? Friv.) (41 e), the forewing is much varied with yellow scales, the locality given being Mountains near the Sea of Marmora. 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 43–50 mm.

Biology

Adults are on wing from July to August in Britain. The larvae are

cutworm Cutworms are moth larvae that hide under litter or soil during the day, coming out in the dark to feed on plants. A larva typically attacks the first part of the plant it encounters, namely the stem, often of a seedling, and consequently cuts it ...

s that feed on various grasses. In North America the cutworm can be found on

fescues ''Festuca'' (fescue) is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the grass family Poaceae (subfamily Pooideae). They are evergreen or herbaceous perennial tufted grasses with a height range of and a cosmopolitan distribution, occurring on every ...

alpine tundra Alpine tundra is a type of natural region or biome that does not contain trees because it is at high elevation, with an associated alpine climate, harsh climate. As the latitude of a location approaches the poles, the threshold elevation for alp ...

habitat.

Subspecies

*''Apamea zeta assimilis'' – Northern Arches *''Apamea zeta cyanochlora'' (Bulgaria) *''Apamea zeta downesi'' Mikkola, 2009 (North America) *''Apamea zeta hellernica'' (Greece) *''Apamea zeta marmorata'' – The Exile *''Apamea zeta murrayi'' (Gibson, 1920) (North America) *''Apamea zeta nichollae'' Hampson, 1908 (North America) *''Apamea zeta pelagica'' Mikkola, 2009 (North America) *''Apamea zeta sanderkovacsi'' (Romania) *''Apamea zeta zeta'' (most of Europe) Former subspecies ''Apamea zeta alticola'' is now considered a valid species, ''

Apamea alticola Apamea or Apameia ( grc, Απάμεια) is the name of several Hellenistic cities in western Asia, after Apama, the Sogdian wife of Seleucus I Nicator, several of which are also former bishoprics and Catholic titular see. Places called Apamea in ...

'' (Smith, 1891).

References

External links

''Apamea zeta'' up Mississippi Entomological MuseumLepiforum.de

zeta Zeta (, ; uppercase Ζ, lowercase ζ; grc, ζῆτα, el, ζήτα, label= Demotic Greek, classical or ''zē̂ta''; ''zíta'') is the sixth letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 7. It was derived f ...

Moths of Europe Moths of North America Taxa named by Georg Friedrich Treitschke Moths described in 1825 {{Apamea-stub