Agrotis clavis

• Subfamily: Noctuinae
• Wingspan: 35-40 mm
• Flight period: May - Aug
• Spread: Common
• Host plants: Polyphagous

Information

The Agrotis clavis also called Heart and Club is a moth of the Noctuidae family, subfamily Noctuinae, with wingspan of 35-40 mm.
Widespread in most of Europe with the exception of Portugal. *
Its range extends to temperate Asia and Korea.
In Italy it is absent from the islands even if some surveys would seem to confirm its presence in Sicily. *

The base color of the front wings of the Agrotis clavis is greyish brown, with three stigmata, one kidney-shaped, one circular and one elongated, they are generally pale in color with dark edges. The base color presents a certain variability in the intensity of the brown color. Two wavy dark lines cross the wings and tend to bend near the veins.

The hind wings are gray in color, usually much darker than the congener Agrotis segetum . In this species all stigmata have a rounded shape, in contrast to the elongated shape of the claviform stigmata of other similar species.
Head, thorax and abdomen are in the background color of the front wings, with a moderate down. **

It has a single annual generation between May and August ***.
The Agrotis clavis is purely nocturnal and is easily attracted to artificial light as well as to sugary substances.

It prefers sandy soils such as coastal dunes but can be found in many other habitats with a prevalence of nutrient-poor places, often stony. The decrease of the above specified typologies of territory has created a notable decrease in the population of this moth. The larva is mottled brown, rough, with black tubercles and an ocher head marked by two dark vertical lines, more or less intense.

The larva is polyphagous, it feeds on various species belonging to different families such as Asteraceae, Brassicaceae, Chenopodiaceae, Fabaceae, Poaceae and Polygonaceae.


* Lepidoptera mundi https://lepidoptera.eu/ - Fauna Europea https://fauna-eu.org/
** Bestimmungshilfe für die in Europa nachgewiesenen Schmetterlingsarten - http://lepiforum.de/
*** Roland Robineau, Guide de papillons nocturne de France, Delachaux et Niestlé, 2011 p. 158