Agrotis puta (Hubner, 1803)

Description: Wingspan 30-32mm. Adults are quite variable in colour. Forewings mainly light brown with a dark basal area; stigmata usually darker that the base colour; crosslines very pale or indistinct. Hindwings white with darker veining.

Key Identification Features:

• Dark stigmata
• White hindwings

Sets:

Flight Period: Unknown in N. Ireland. In Britain from late April to October.

Status: A rare immigrant that has only been recorded on three occasions in N. Ireland, at Enniskillen, Fermanagh in 1893, Helen's Bay, Down in the 1940s and most recently from a mature suburban garden in the Greater Belfast area in May 2001. The only other reliable Irish record was from Cork in 1984. The other records indicated by Donovan from Cos. Westmeath and Louth are incorrect.

Ecology: Found in a variety of habitats including woodland, marshland and cultivated areas. Adults are attracted to light and flowers especially Ragwort Senecio jacobaea and Buddleia Buddleja davidii. The larvae feed from September to March on a variety of plants including dock Rumex spp., Dandelion Taraxacum officinale, and knotgrass Polygonum spp. Overwinters as a larva.

World Distribution: Mediterranean-Asiatic; in western Europe as far north as Belgium.

Bradley & Fletcher number: 2092 Agassiz number: 73.325

Additional information:

UK Moths account