Kingdom Animalia Order Lepidoptera Genus Lithacodia Higher classification Lithacodia | Phylum Arthropoda Family Noctuidae Scientific name Lithacodia uncula Rank Species | |
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Similar Butterflies and moths, Noctuidae, Watsonalla cultraria, Papestra biren, Senta flammea | ||
Lithacodia uncula, the silver hook, is a species of moth of the family Noctuidae. It is found in the Palearctic ecozone.
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Distribution
Lithacodia uncula has a vast distribution area ranging from the French western Pyrenees to Japan. In the north it extends to south and central England, Ireland, Scandinavia in the areas around the Baltic Sea, in Finland and northern Russia. Largely missing in the Mediterranean with the exception of two smaller occurrences on the French Mediterranean coast and in Tuscany, as well as on the northern Adriatic coast (in northern Italy, Slovenia and Croatia). In south-eastern Europe the distribution area stretches far to the south to northern Albania and northern Greece. From there it runs east (Russian Far East, northern China, Japan, Korea). Also in south Bulgaria, Ukraine, the Crimea and southern Russia, Central Asia and Siberia.
Description
The wingspan is 20–22 mm. Wings short and broad. Forewing olive brown, darker in disc; a broad flesh coloured streak along costa and another on inner margin; the orbicular and reniform stigmata flesh coloured, whiter-edged, confluent with the costal streak; some pale lines before termen, straight and parallel, the innermost white; hindwing paler; the dark-suffused examples are named obscurior Spul.
Biology
The moth flies from May to September depending on the location.
Larva green with the dorsal line darker; the subdorsal lines whitish; the spiracular pale yellow. The larvae feed on various grasses and Carex species.