Acontia lucida, the pale shoulder, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Johann Siegfried Hufnagel in 1766."Pale Shoulder Acontia lucida (Hufnagel, 1766)". BioLib. Retrieved 20 September 2020.
Distribution and habitat This species can be found in most of Europe, east to Turkey, Iran and India. It has also been recorded from Algeria. It is a rare migrant to the south coast of Great Britain.Fauna Europaea The pale shoulder can be found in grasslands, dry meadows, steppes, dunes and roadsides, where the host plants are present.
Description
The wingspan of Acontia lucida can reach 26–30 mm. Head, thorax and abdomen are white. The forewings show a greyish-white front part and a wide dark brown median band, dark mottled and marbled, larger in the centre. A white mark is present on the outer edge of the forewings, while a brown mark is close to the apex. Hindwings are whitish fuscous, with a brown band near the apex. Larvae are green or brown, with transversal whitish bands.Watson, L. & Dallwitz, M. J. "Acontia Ochsenheimer". British Insects: the Genera of Lepidoptera-Noctuidae. Archived 25 July 2008.
Biology The larvae are polyphagous, feeding on various herbaceous plants, mainly on mallow (Malva species), common marshmallow (Althaea officinalis), field bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis), goosefoots (Chenopodium) and dandelion (Taraxacum). Adults are on the wing on sunny days in May and August in two generations. They are attracted to light. This species overwinters as pupa below ground. Rarely it is a migrant species."Acontia lucida (Hufnagel, 1766)". Lepidoptera and Their Ecology. Retrieved 20 September 2020.
References
External links
Lepiforum e. V. Encyclopedia of Life Acontia lucida in Germany 2013 - picture