The heart and dart (''Agrotis exclamationis'') is a

moth Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of ...

of the family

Noctuidae The Noctuidae, commonly known as owlet moths, cutworms or armyworms, are a family of moths. They are considered the most controversial family in the superfamily Noctuoidea because many of the clades are constantly changing, along with the othe ...

. The species was first described by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, ...

in his 1758 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae''. A familiar moth to many, it is considered one of the most common of the European region. It occurs throughout the

Palearctic realm The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Si ...

from Ireland to Japan. This is a quite variable species with forewings ranging from pale to dark brown but always recognizable by the distinctively shaped dark

stigmata Stigmata ( grc, στίγματα, plural of , 'mark, spot, brand'), in Roman Catholicism, are bodily wounds, scars and pain which appear in locations corresponding to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus Christ: the hands, wrists, and feet. Sti ...

which give it its common name. The

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan ...

is 35–44 mm. The hindwings are whitish (compared with other common ''Agrotis'' species, the hindwings of this species are usually paler than in heart and club but darker than in

turnip moth ''Agrotis segetum'', sometimes known as the turnip moth, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Michael Denis and Ignaz Schiffermüller in 1775. It is a common European species and it is found in Africa and across ...

). This species usually has a dark area at the front of the

thorax The thorax or chest is a part of the anatomy of humans, mammals, and other tetrapod animals located between the neck and the abdomen. In insects, crustaceans, and the extinct trilobites, the thorax is one of the three main divisions of the ...

, visible as a horizontal bar when viewing the moth head on. The differences are not consistent however; they are highly variable in both colour and markings, and identification of atypical or worn examples may prove impossible without examination of genitalia. See Townsend et al. This moth flies at night from May to July and is attracted to light, sometimes in large numbers. It also frequently visits nectar-rich flowers such as ''

Buddleia ''Buddleja'' (; ''Buddleia''; also historically given as ''Buddlea'') is a genus comprising over 140 species of flowering plants endemic to Asia, Africa, and the Americas. The generic name bestowed by Linnaeus posthumously honoured the Revere ...

'',

ragwort ''Jacobaea vulgaris'', syn. ''Senecio jacobaea'', is a very common wild flower in the family Asteraceae that is native to northern Eurasia, usually in dry, open places, and has also been widely distributed as a weed elsewhere. Common names inc ...

and

red valerian ''Centranthus ruber'', the red valerian, spur valerian, kiss-me-quick, fox's brush, devil's beard or Jupiter's beard, is a popular garden plant grown for its ornamental flowers. Description It grows as a perennial plant, usually as a subshrub th ...

. The

larva A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. Th ...

The caterpillars are coloured grey-brown, paler ventrally and have a pale dorsal line and clearly recognizable black point warts. The pupa is bright red. On the cremaster sit two short curved thorns.Larvae feed on a variety of plants, both wild and cultivated (see list below). This is one of the notorious cutworms and often severs or fatally damages plants at the base. The species overwinters as a full-grown larva in a chamber in the soil before

pupa A pupa ( la, pupa, "doll"; plural: ''pupae'') is the life stage of some insects undergoing transformation between immature and mature stages. Insects that go through a pupal stage are holometabolous: they go through four distinct stages in their ...

ting in the spring. #''The flight season refers to the

British Isles The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isles (O ...

. This may vary in other parts of the range.''

Recorded host plants

*''

Anemone ''Anemone'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae. Plants of the genus are commonly called windflowers. They are native to the temperate and subtropical regions of all continents except Australia, New Zealand ...

'' *'' Artemisia'' *''Beta'' –

beet The beetroot is the taproot portion of a beet plant, usually known in North America as beets while the vegetable is referred to as beetroot in British English, and also known as the table beet, garden beet, red beet, dinner beet or golden beet ...

*''

Brassica rapa ''Brassica rapa'' is a plant species growing in various widely cultivated forms including the turnip (a root vegetable); napa cabbage, bomdong, bok choy, and rapini. ''Brassica rapa'' subsp. ''oleifera'' is an oilseed which has many common ...

'' – turnip *''Fragaria'' –

strawberry The garden strawberry (or simply strawberry; ''Fragaria × ananassa'') is a widely grown hybrid species of the genus '' Fragaria'', collectively known as the strawberries, which are cultivated worldwide for their fruit. The fruit is widely a ...

*''Lactuca'' –

lettuce Lettuce (''Lactuca sativa'') is an annual plant of the family Asteraceae. It is most often grown as a leaf vegetable, but sometimes for its stem and seeds. Lettuce is most often used for salads, although it is also seen in other kinds of foo ...

*''

Plantago ''Plantago'' is a genus of about 200 species of flowering plants in the family Plantaginaceae, commonly called plantains or fleaworts. The common name plantain is shared with the unrelated cooking plantain. Most are herbaceous plants, though a ...

'' - plantain *''

Polygonum ''Polygonum'' is a genus of about 130 species of flowering plant in the buckwheat and knotweed family Polygonaceae. Common names include knotweed and knotgrass (though the common names may refer more broadly to plants from Polygonaceae). In t ...

'' *''Quercus'' – oak *''

Rubus ''Rubus'' is a large and diverse genus of flowering plants in the rose family, Rosaceae, subfamily Rosoideae, with over 1,350 species. Raspberries, blackberries, and dewberries are common, widely distributed members of the genus. Most of t ...

'' – bramble *''

Rumex The docks and sorrels, genus ''Rumex'', are a genus of about 200 species of annual, biennial, and perennial herbs in the buckwheat family, Polygonaceae. Members of this genus are very common perennial herbs with a native almost worldwide dist ...

'' – docks, sorrels *''Solanum'' –

potato The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern Un ...

*''Spinacia'' –

spinach Spinach (''Spinacia oleracea'') is a leafy green flowering plant native to central and western Asia. It is of the order Caryophyllales, family Amaranthaceae, subfamily Chenopodioideae. Its leaves are a common edible vegetable consumed eith ...

*''

Stellaria ''Stellaria'' is a genus of about 190 species of flowering plants in the family Caryophyllaceae, with a cosmopolitan distribution. Common names include starwort, stitchwort and chickweed. Description ''Stellaria'' species are relatively sm ...

'' *''Zea'' –

maize Maize ( ; ''Zea mays'' subsp. ''mays'', from es, maíz after tnq, mahiz), also known as corn ( North American and Australian English), is a cereal grain first domesticated by indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 10,000 years ago. ...

Subspecies

* ''A. e. corsica'' - Corsica * ''A. e. exclamationis'' - Europe * ''A. e. informis'' Leech, 889/small> - Japan Agrotis exclamationis-s.jpg, Profile Agrotis exclamationis-f.jpg, Front mark Agrotis exclamationis-o.jpg, Color variation

References

* Chinery, Michael (1986, reprinted 1991). ''Collins Guide to the Insects of Britain and Western Europe''. * Skinner, Bernard (1984). ''

The Colour Identification Guide to Moths of the British Isles ''The Colour Identification Guide to Moths of the British Isles (Macrolepidoptera)'' by Bernard Skinner is a single volume identification guide to the macromoths of Britain and Ireland published by Viking Books, often referred by moth recorde ...

''.

External links

* *
''Lepiforum e.V.''
{{Taxonbar , from=Q771090 Agrotis Moths of Asia Moths of Europe Moths of Japan Moths of the Middle East Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus