Kingdom Animalia Class Insecta Family Noctuidae Scientific name Lithophane ornitopus | Phylum Arthropoda Order Lepidoptera Genus Lithophane Rank Species | |
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Similar Lithophane, Conistra vaccinii, Satellite, Conistra ligula, Xanthia icteritia | ||
Lithophane ornitopus, the grey shoulder-knot, is a moth of the Noctuidae family. It is found in most of the Palearctic ecozone from Ireland east to Siberia.
Contents
Technical description and variation
The wingspan is 32–38 mm. Forewing greywhite; a bifurcate black streak from base below cell; lines indistinct, pale with dotted edges; stigmata grey with partial black outlines and paler rings; the lower lobe of the reniform orange tinged; claviform sometimes connected by a black streak with outer line, and often a dark spot between the stigmata; submarginal line waved, white, preceded by dark marks; hindwing grey; the whiter forms are separated as ab. pallida Spul.
Biology
Adults are on wing from late August to November and, after overwintering, again from the end of February to mid-May.
Larva bluish green dotted with white; dorsal and subdorsal lines white; spiracular line yellowish white. The larvae feed on various deciduous trees, but mainly Quercus species. Larvae can be found from April to June. It overwinters as an adult.