The dark dagger (''Acronicta tridens'') is a moth 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 Michael Denis and Ignaz Schiffermüller in 1775. It is distributed throughout Europe (from southern

Fennoscandia __NOTOC__ Fennoscandia (Finnish language, Finnish, Swedish language, Swedish and no, Fennoskandia, nocat=1; russian: Фенноскандия, Fennoskandiya) or the Fennoscandian Peninsula is the geographical peninsula in Europe, which includes ...

to the Balkans and Italy), Turkey, the

Near East The ''Near East''; he, המזרח הקרוב; arc, ܕܢܚܐ ܩܪܒ; fa, خاور نزدیک, Xāvar-e nazdik; tr, Yakın Doğu is a geographical term which roughly encompasses a transcontinental region in Western Asia, that was once the hist ...

, the European part of Russia, southern Siberia, the Ural, the Russian Far East ( Primorye, southern

Khabarovsk Khabarovsk ( rus, Хабaровск, a=Хабаровск.ogg, r=Habárovsk, p=xɐˈbarəfsk) is the largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and the administrative centre of Khabarovsk Krai, Russia,Law #109 located from the China ...

, southern Amur region and Sakhalin), the Korean Peninsula,

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

and

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

( Hokkaido). This species has grey forewings marked with bold black "daggers". The hindwings of the males are white, those of the females dirty grey. The wingspan is 35–43 mm. Adults of this species are extremely similar to the grey dagger (''Acronicta psi''). Despite the common name, the dark dagger is usually the paler of the two species and the white hindwings of the male are usually diagnostic. However, the only reliable way of distinguishing adults of the two species is by examination of the genitalia. See See Townsend et al.Martin C. Townsend, Jon Clifton and Brian Goodey (2010)
''British and Irish Moths: An Illustrated Guide to Selected Difficult Species''
(covering the use of genitalia characters and other features) Butterfly Conservation. The larvae, however, are very different (see below). This species flies at night in June and July and is attracted to light and sometimes to sugar. The larva is black, marked with red and white stripes, without the bold yellow markings and prominent horn of the larva of the grey dagger. It feeds on a variety of plants (see list below). This species overwinters as a pupa, sometimes spending two winters in this form. # ''The flight season refers to the British Isles. This may vary in other parts of the range.''

Recorded food plants

*''Betula'' - birch *'' Caragana'' *''

Crataegus ''Crataegus'' (), commonly called hawthorn, quickthorn, thornapple, Voss, E. G. 1985. ''Michigan Flora: A guide to the identification and occurrence of the native and naturalized seed-plants of the state. Part II: Dicots (Saururaceae–Cornacea ...

'' - hawthorn *'' Malus'' - apple *'' Prunus'' *''Pyrus'' - pear *''Rhamnus'' -

buckthorn ''Rhamnus'' is a genus of about 110 accepted species of shrubs or small trees, commonly known as buckthorns, in the family Rhamnaceae. Its species range from tall (rarely to ) and are native mainly in east Asia and North America, but found thr ...

*''Rosa'' - rose *''Salix'' - willow *''Sorbus'' -

rowan The rowans ( or ) or mountain-ashes are shrubs or trees in the genus ''Sorbus ''Sorbus'' is a genus of over 100 species of trees and shrubs in the rose family, Rosaceae. Species of ''Sorbus'' (''s.l.'') are commonly known as whitebeam, r ...

References

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External links

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''Fauna Europaea''"08776 ''Acronicta tridens'' (
''Lepiforum e. V.'' {{Taxonbar">from=Q280967 Acronicta Moths described in 1775">enis & Schiffermüller], 1775) - Dreizack-Pfeileule"
''Lepiforum e. V.'' {{Taxonbar">from=Q280967 Acronicta Moths described in 1775 Moths of Europe Moths of Asia Taxa named by Michael Denis Taxa named by Ignaz Schiffermüller