The wingspan is 38–48 mm. Forewing olive fuscous tinged with purple;all the veins white; inner and outer lines double, black; submarginal whitish, preceded by black wedgeshaped spots; claviform stigma of the ground colour outlined with whitish and black and with a pale linear centre; upper stigmata white-ringed with olive centres, reniform with a curved pale line at centre; wing in male dull white with fuscous termen, in female wholly fuscous with base alone paler; — ab. hilaris Stgr. is smaller and paler, the hindwing of male whitish.[1][2][3]
Figs 2, 2a, larva after last moult
Biology
The moth flies from August to September depending on the location.
Larva shining bronzy brownish, with the tubercles large and black; head and thoracic plate dark brown. Younger caterpillars are initially greenish coloured and change their colour with increasing development of shiny brownish tints. The dorsal and laterodorsal lines are yellow-brown. The larvae feed at the roots of various grasses, living through the winter and feeding up in summer.
.[4]
Steppe, grassy hillsides, gardens and meadows and pastures are the main habitat.
References
^Seitz, A. Ed., 1914 Die Großschmetterlinge der Erde, Verlag Alfred Kernen, Stuttgart Band 3: Abt. 1, Die Großschmetterlinge des palaearktischen Faunengebietes, Die palaearktischen eulenartigen Nachtfalter, 1914
^Hermann Hacker, László Ronkay, Márton Hreblay: Hadeninae I. In: Michael Fibiger, David Agassiz, Martin Honey (Hrsg.): Noctuidae Europaeae. Band 4. Entomological Press, Sorø 2002, ISBN 87-89430-07-7.
^Walter Forster, Theodor A. Wohlfahrt: Die Schmetterlinge Mitteleuropas. Band 4: Eulen. (Noctuidae). Franckh’sche Verlagshandlung, Stuttgart 1971, ISBN 3-440-03752-5.
