''Eucarta amethystina'' 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 ...

in 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 ...

first described by

Jacob Hübner Jacob Hübner (20 June 1761 – 13 September 1826, in Augsburg) was a German entomologist. He was the author of ''Sammlung Europäischer Schmetterlinge'' (1796–1805), a founding work of entomology. Scientific career Hübner was the author of '' ...

in 1803. It is found in central Europe, east to

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...

, through the

Ural Ural may refer to: *Ural (region), in Russia and Kazakhstan *Ural Mountains, in Russia and Kazakhstan *Ural (river), in Russia and Kazakhstan *Ual (tool), a mortar tool used by the Bodo people of India *Ural Federal District, in Russia *Ural econo ...

to the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

. 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 28–34 mm. The ground colour of the forewings varies from rosy grey to rosy brown, with an amethyst-coloured hue. The markings are dark brown with a whitish border. The hindwings are uniform light grey brown.

Technical description and variation

''T. amethystina'' Hbn. (44 f). Forewing olive green suffused with rosy pink; the olive tints predominant in basal half of wing and along termen; basal and inner lines dark olive, edged with rosy pink, the former outwardly, the latter inwardly; outer line dark olive, dentate lunulate, almost lost in the rosy suffusion; stigmata rosy pink inlined with olive, the claviform and orbicular with white annuli, all 3 connected by a wedge-shaped pink mark below median, often suffused with olive; cell and space below it deep dark olive; submarginal line pinkish, indented on each fold; fringe olive and pink; hindwing pale grey, suffused with fuscous olive. ; — the East Asiatic form, — subsp. ''austera'' subsp. nov. (44 f), — differs from the European in being much more sombre, the olive shading being stronger and greyer, and the rosy tints duller. — Larva green; dorsal line yellowish edged with deep green; subdorsal lines white; spiracular line broad, yellowish, sometimes tinged with red; spiracles black; feeding on the lower leaves of wild carrot and parsley. 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

Biology

Adults are on wing from June to August. The larvae feed on Apiaceae species, including '' Laser trilobum'', ''

Silaum silaus ''Silaum silaus'', commonly known as pepper-saxifrage, is a perennial plant in the family Apiaceae (Umbelliferae) (the carrot family) found across south-eastern, central, and western Europe, including the British Isles. It grows in damp grasslan ...

'', ''

Peucedanum officinale ''Peucedanum officinale'' is a herbaceous perennial plant in the family Apiaceae found mainly in Central Europe and Southern Europe. It is also native to the UK, where it has the common names hog's fennel and sulphurweed, but it is a rare plant t ...

'' and ''

Daucus carota ''Daucus carota'', whose common names include wild carrot, European wild carrot, bird's nest, bishop's lace, and Queen Anne's lace (North America), is a flowering plant in the family Apiaceae. It is native to temperate regions of the Old Wor ...

''. Full-grown larvae are green. The species overwinters in the pupal stage.

References

External links

''Fauna Europaea''''Lepiforum e. V.''
Moths described in 1803 Moths of Europe Amphipyrinae Taxa named by Jacob Hübner {{Amphipyrinae-stub

Technical description and variation

Biology

References

Further reading

External links