Rustic shoulder-knot

Description

Apamea sordens, the rustic shoulder-knot or bordered apamea, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Johann Siegfried Hufnagel in 1766. It is distributed throughout Europe, east across the Palearctic to Central Asia and to China and Japan. It also occurs in North America (Labrador to Virginia, west across Canada, south to Minnesota). This moth has a wingspan of 36 to 42 mm. The forewings are brown with mostly indistinct markings except for the narrow black mark at the base of the wing which gives the species its common name. The hindwings are greyish brown, darker towards the margins, with prominent dark venation. This moth flies at night and is attracted to light and sugar. Its flight season in the British Isles is May and June. The larva feeds on various grasses, including oats, fescues, barleys, canarygrasses, timothy, ryes, wheats, and wild rice. This species overwinters as a larva, feeding in mild weather throughout the season. it is grey brown with black tubercles; dorsal line broad, whitish; subdorsal finer; spiracular line broadly whitish, edged above with dark; feeding when quite young in autumn in the grains of corn and after hibernation in the fresh lower leaves and on grasses.