''Mythimna vitellina'', the delicate, 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 ...

. The species was 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 1808. It is mainly distributed throughout southern Europe and the southern part of eastern Europe. It is also found far less commonly further north in Europe. Also in

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

, 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 ...

and

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabian Peninsula, Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Anatolia, Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Pro ...

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

and western

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 ...

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 of ...

is 36–43 mm. The length of the forewings varies from 12 to 14 mm. Forewing pale yellowish ochreous, typically strongly flushed with rufous; veins finely rufous; lines fine, more or less angulated, the inner and outer approximated on inner margin; stigmata indistinct: the orbicular slight, often obsolete; reniform rufous, with a dark spot in lower end; hindwing ochreous white, greyer in female, the veins often fuscous; the pale, less highly coloured, specimens, with whiter hindwings, ab. ''pallida'' nov. arrenwhich seem to be comparatively rare in western Europe, though occurring in Switzerland and the Canaries, are the usual form in Syria and Turkestan.

Biology

The flight season is recorded in August and October, but also sometimes earlier in the season.. Larva pale tannish-peach colour; dorsal and subdorsal lines white, with darker edges;

spiracle Spiracle or spiraculum may refer to: * Spiracle (arthropods), opening in the exoskeletons of some arthropods * Spiracle (vertebrates), openings on the surface of some vertebrates * Spiraculum, a genus of land snails in family Cyclophoridae Cycl ...

s black on a pale yellow lateral line; head brown with black markings. The larva feeds on various

grass Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns an ...

es. # ''The flight season refers to 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, ...

. This may vary in other parts of the range.''

References

*Waring, Paul & Townsend, Martin (2006). ''Nachtvlinders, veldgids met alle in Nederland en België voorkomende soorten''. Baarn.

External links

* * Taxonomy
''Lepiforum e.V.''''De Vlinderstichting''
Mythimna (moth) Moths described in 1808 Moths of Africa Moths of Asia Moths of Europe Moths of the Middle East Taxa named by Jacob Hübner {{Mythimnini-stub