''Xylena vetusta'', the red sword-grass, 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 1813. 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-Sibe ...

from northwestern Africa through Europe and Asia up to central

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...

. In the north it is found up to the

Arctic Circle The Arctic Circle is one of the two polar circles, and the most northerly of the five major circles of latitude as shown on maps of Earth. Its southern equivalent is the Antarctic Circle. The Arctic Circle marks the southernmost latitude at w ...

and

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

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 52–65 mm and the forewings are long and narrow. Their colouring is pale greyish ochreous, the inner marginal half suffused with fuscous or blackish brown, less strongly beyond middle; orbicular stigma obsolescent, marked by a brown dot or two, rarely outlined; reniform large, pale, with double brown outline, followed by a patch of brown scaling, joined by a black brown sagittate mark to the pale serrate subterminal line; a diffuse black blotch in the dark scaling represents the claviform stigma; lines very indistinct, indicated by dark vein spots; hindwing brownish fuscous. In the ab. ''albida'' Spul. a diffuse streak of white scales runs from the base along the middle of wing extending to the space below the reniform and obliquely upwards to apex; in the females the dark markings are more mixed with blackish grey and in the males with brown; in ab. ''brunnea'' Tutt the ground colour is brighter ochreous, and the dark shading brown or black brown, the grey and white scaling being altogether absent.

Biology

Adults are on wing from August to June. Larva bright green or olive brown; dorsal and subdorsal lines yellowish, the latter with three yellow tubercles above them on each segment; spiracular line yellow, black edged above, with the spiracles red. The larvae feed on various plants, including ''

Rumex hydrolapathum ''Rumex hydrolapathum'', the great water dock, water dock, or giant water dock, is a species of perennial herbaceous plants in the genus ''Rumex'' native to fens and freshwater banks of Europe and Western Asia. It is the tallest species in the g ...

'', ''

Centaurea ''Centaurea'' () is a genus of over 700 species of herbaceous thistle-like flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. Members of the genus are found only north of the equator, mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere; the Middle East and surrounding reg ...

'', ''

Iris Iris most often refers to: *Iris (anatomy), part of the eye *Iris (mythology), a Greek goddess * ''Iris'' (plant), a genus of flowering plants * Iris (color), an ambiguous color term Iris or IRIS may also refer to: Arts and media Fictional ent ...

'', ''

Cyperaceae The Cyperaceae are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as sedges. The family is large, with some 5,500 known species described in about 90 genera, the largest being the "true sedges" genus ''Carex'' w ...

'' and ''

Polygonum ''Polygonum'' is a genus of about 130 species of flowering plant in the buckwheat and knotweed family Polygonaceae. Common names include knotweed and knotgrass (though the common names may refer more broadly to plants from Polygonaceae). In the ...

''.

References

External links

*
''Fauna Europaea''
* Taxonomy
''Lepiforum e. V.''

''Schmetterlinge-Deutschlands.de''

''De Vlinderstichting''
Cuculliinae Moths of Europe Moths of Asia Moths of the Middle East Moths of Iceland Taxa named by Jacob Hübner {{Cuculliinae-stub