Kingdom Animalia Class Insecta Family Noctuidae Scientific name Hoplodrina ambigua | Phylum Arthropoda Order Lepidoptera Genus Hoplodrina Rank Species | |
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Similar Hoplodrina, Hoplodrina octogenaria, Hoplodrina blanda, Caradrina morpheus, Paradrina clavipalpis | ||
Hoplodrina ambigua, the Vine’s rustic, is a moth of the family Noctuoidea. It is found in the west Palearctic ecozone (central Europe, south Europe North Africa, Russia to Urals, south-west Siberia, Tuva, Altai Mountains, Tadjikistan, Turkestan and in the Near East – Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan).
Contents
Technical description and variation
The wingspan is 32–34 mm. The length of the forewings is 13–15 mm.Forewing greyish ochreous, sometimes uniformly washed with brownish; the lines and stigmata dark grey, the latter with pale annuli; submarginal line luteous preceded by a dark grey shade; hindwing dirty pale grey in male, darker in female, and darker in both sexes in the brown suffused forms: - the form sericea Speyer, from Holland and Germany, is described as having narrower silky grey forewings; -in [now full species levis Stgr.] , from W. Turkestan and Asia Minor, the yellower ochreous tint is predominant and the dark markings are conspicuous but in some pale examples from Segovia, Spain- ab. ochrea ab. nov. [Warren] the dark markings tend to become effaced, the head, thorax, and forewings being pale yellow ochreous - amurensis Stgr. indicates small dark examples from Ussuri, Amurland. Similar to and confused with Hoplodrina octogenaria and Hoplodrina blanda. Certain identification requires dissection of the genitalia.
Biology
The moth flies in two generations from early May to mid-October. [1].
Larva clay coloured, darker dorsally: the dorsal line itself fine and white with dark edges; the subdorsal also fine and pale; laterally a pale dark edged serrate line containing the spiracles. The larvae are polyphagous feeding on various herbaceous plants including Beta vulgaris, Cynara scolymus, Medicago sativa and Taraxacum officinale.
