''Lacanobia suasa'', the dog’s tooth, 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. 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-Sib ...

(Europe,

Ural Mountains 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 western ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

Amur Oblast Amur Oblast ( rus, Аму́рская о́бласть, r=Amurskaya oblast, p=ɐˈmurskəjə ˈobləsʲtʲ) is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast), located on the banks of the Amur and Zeya Rivers in the Russian Far East. The administrat ...

Technical description and variation

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 o ...

is 32–37 mm. Forewing pale ash grey, suffused with olive brown; a black streak from base below cell, Forewing uniform dull red brown, with all the markings obscured, even the black basal streak sometimes obsolete, as well as the usually plain pale submarginal line with its two sharp teeth on veins 3 and 4; hindwing dull fuscous, paler towards base with the veins darker; the form ''suasa'' Bkh. icthe commonest of all, is pale leatherbrown, with distinct markings, a black basal streak, blackish claviform stigma, a dark cloud at lower end of cell, and black marginal area; the upper stigmata paler; of this ''laeta'' Reuter from Scandinavia, Finland, and the Baltic coast, but occurring also elsewhere, is an extreme form, showing a pale patch at base of costa and black wedgeshaped marks preceding the pale submarginal line; ''confluens'' Ev. is the darkest form of all, being entirely blackish fuscous, with the markings just outlined and the submarginal line sometimes broken up into dots; a pale greyish-red form from Turania, ab. ''turanica'' Spul, has the markings more or less obsolete, but the submarginal line distinct; finally extincta Stgr. from Amurland is also a dark form with the pale markings yellow instead of white.

Biology

The moth flies from April to October depending on the location. Larva reddish yellow, dotted with white and dark grey; dorsal and subdorsal lines grey, the last obscured by dark streaks; lateral lines yellow with blackish edges. The larvae feed on various herbaceous plants. These include ''Betula'' spp., ''

Alnus incana ''Alnus incana'', the grey alder or speckled alder, is a species of multi-stemmed, shrubby tree in the birch family, with a wide range across the cooler parts of the Northern Hemisphere. Tolerant of wetter soils, it can slowly spread with runners ...

'', ''

Corylus avellana ''Corylus avellana'', the common hazel, is a species of flowering plant in the birch family Betulaceae. It is native to Europe and western Asia. It is an important component of the hedgerows that were the traditional field boundaries in lowland En ...

'', ''Salix'' spp., ''Polygonum'' spp., ''Rumex'' spp., ''

Chenopodium album ''Chenopodium album'' is a fast-growing weedy annual plant in the genus ''Chenopodium''. Though cultivated in some regions, the plant is elsewhere considered a weed. Common names include lamb's quarters, melde, goosefoot, wild spinach and fat-h ...

'', ''Atriplex'' sp., ''Brassica'' sp., '' Brassica campestris'', ''

Rubus idaeus ''Rubus idaeus'' (raspberry, also called red raspberry or occasionally European red raspberry to distinguish it from other raspberry species) is a red-fruited species of ''Rubus'' native to Europe and northern Asia and commonly cultivated in othe ...

'', ''

Malus domestica An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, ' ...

'', ''Trifolium'' sp., ''Galium'' sp., ''

Cirsium arvense ''Cirsium arvense'' is a perennial species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae, native throughout Europe and western Asia, northern Africa and widely introduced elsewhere.Joint Nature Conservation Committee''Cirsium arvense'' The standa ...

''. .

References

External links

Dog’s Tooth at UKmoths
Taxonomy
Lepiforum.deVlindernet.nl
Lacanobia Moths of Europe Moths described in 1775 {{Hadenini-stub