setaceous Hebrew character
{{short description|Species of moth}}
{{Speciesbox
| name = Setaceous Hebrew character
| image = Xestia.c-nigrum.jpg
| image2 = Xestia.c-nigrum.7381.jpg
| genus = Xestia
| species = c-nigrum
| authority = (Linnaeus, 1758)
| synonyms = {{Specieslist
|Megasema c-nigrum|(Linnaeus, 1758)
|Phalaena c-nigrum|Linnaeus, 1758
|Bombyx gothica var. nunatrum|Esper, 1786
|Bombyx gothica var. singularis|Esper, 1786
|Agrotis degenerata|Staudinger, 1889
|Agrotis suffusa|Tutt, 1892
|Agrotis rosea|Tutt, 1892
|Agrotis umbrata|Schultz, 1908
|Agrotis fritschi|Culot, 1910
|Agrotis c-nigrum var. depravata|Bang-Haas, 1912
|Agrotis nigrescens|Buresch, 1914
|Agrotis maerens|Dannehl, 1925
|Agrotis c-nigrum var. kurilana|Bryk, 1942
|Amathes c-nigrum ignorata|Eitschberger, 1972
|Xestia adela|Franclemont, 1980
}}
}}
The setaceous Hebrew character (Xestia c-nigrum) is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae. It is found in the Palearctic realm. It is a common species throughout Europe and North Asia and Central Asia, South Asia, China, Japan and Korea. It is also found in North America, from coast to coast across Canada and the northern United States to western Alaska. It occurs in the Rocky Mountains from Montana to southern Arizona and New Mexico. In the east, it ranges from Maine to North Carolina. It has recently been recorded in Tennessee.
The forewings of this species are reddish brown with distinctive patterning towards the base: a black mark resembling the Hebrew letter nun (נ), thus inspiring the common name, with a pale cream-coloured area adjacent to this mark. The hindwings are cream coloured. "Setaceous", meaning "having bristles", refers to the hairs on the top of the thorax and fringing the wings.
Description
{{Entomology glossary hatnote}}
The wingspan is 35–45 mm. Forewing purplish grey or purplish fuscous with a leaden gloss; costal area at middle ochreous, merged with the bluntly triangular orbicular stigma: cell, a submedian basal blotch, and costal spot before apex purplish black; claviform stigma minute; reniform large, the lower lobe purplish; hindwing ochreous whitish, in female with the termen broadly fuscous.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
Michael Fibiger: Noctuidae Europaeae, Volume 2 Noctuinae II. Entomological Press, Sorø, 1993, ISBN 87-89430-02-6 Walter Forster, Theodor A. Wohlfahrt: Die Schmetterlinge Mitteleuropas. Band 4: Eulen. (Noctuidae). Franckh’sche Verlagshandlung, Stuttgart 1971, ISBN 3-440-03752-5.
Lava pink with a broad dark brown subdorsal band. A lateral yellow band with a brown spot on it. Head reddish brown in color.{{cite book |last=Hampson |first=G. F. |authorlink=George Hampson |date=1894 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/180400#page/5/mode/1up |title=The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma: Moths Volume II |volume=Moths - Vol. II |publisher=Taylor and Francis |via=Biodiversity Heritage Library}}
Xestia.c-nigrum5.-.lindsey.jpg|The caterpillar of the species.
Nun ang.png|Hebrew letter nun - 15th-century Ashkenazi book-hand.
Biology
Two broods are produced each year and the adults are on the wing between May and October.{{ref|flight_season}} This moth flies at night and is attracted to light and sugar, as well as flowers such as Buddleia, ivy and ragwort.
The larva is pale brown red-brown or green with obscure paler dorsal and subdorsal lines and a broad pale ochreous spiracular line. It feeds on a huge variety of plants (see list below). The species overwinters as a larva.
- {{Note|flight_season}} The flight season refers to the British Isles. This may vary in other parts of the range.
{{clear left}}
=Recorded food plants=
{{div col|colwidth=18em}}
- Acer – maple
- Allium – onion
- Apium – celery
- Avena – oat
- Beta – beet
- Brassica
- Calendula – marigold
- Chrysanthemum
- Cichorium – chicory
- Cirsium – creeping thistle
- Comptonia – sweetfern
- Daucus – carrot
- Epilobium – rosebay willowherb
- Helianthus
- Hordeum – barley
- Hypericum – St John's wort
- Lactuca – lettuce
- Lamium – dead-nettle
- Lantana
- Linum
- Lobelia
- Lycopersicon – tomato
- Malus – apple
- Medicago – alfalfa (lucerne)
- Myosotis – forget-me-not
- Nicotiana – tobacco
- Photinia
- Pisum – pea
- Plantago – plantain
- Platanus – Oriental plane
- Primula
- Pyrus – pear
- Rheum – rhubarb
- Ribes – currant
- Rumex
- Senecio – groundsel
- Solanum – potato
- Solidago – goldenrods
- Spiraea
- Stellaria – chickweed
- Taraxacum – dandelion
- Thalictrum – meadow-rue
- Trifolium – clover
- Triticum – wheat
- Urtica – nettle
- Vaccinium
- Veratrum
- Viburnum
- Viola
- Vitis – grape
- Zea – maize (corn)
{{div col end}}
See also
- Hebrew character (Orthosia gothica), another moth species with similar markings
- Polygrammate hebraeicum
References
{{Reflist}}
- Chinery, Michael. Collins Guide to the Insects of Britain and Western Europe 1986 (Reprinted 1991)
- Skinner, Bernard. Colour Identification Guide to Moths of the British Isles 1984
External links
{{Commonscat|Xestia c-nigrum}}
- [http://www.lepiforum.de/cgi-bin/lepiwiki.pl?Xestia_C-Nigrum "10199 Xestia c-nigrum (Linnaeus, 1758) - Schwarzes C"]. Lepiforum e.V. Retrieved January 22, 2019.
- [https://fauna-eu.org Fauna Europaea]
- {{cite web |last=Savela |first=Markku |url=http://www.nic.funet.fi/pub/sci/bio/life/insecta/lepidoptera/ditrysia/noctuoidea/noctuidae/noctuinae/xestia/#c-nigrum |title=Xestia c-nigrum (Linnaeus, 1758) |website=Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms |accessdate=January 22, 2019}}
{{Taxonbar |from=Q2094340}}
Category:Moths described in 1758
Category:Agricultural pest insects