Noctua fimbriata (Schreber, 1759)


Noctua fimbriata: Adult [S] Noctua fimbriata: Adult [S] Noctua fimbriata: Adult [S] Noctua fimbriata: Adult [S] Noctua fimbriata: Adult (e.l. eastern Swabian Alb 2011) [S] Noctua fimbriata: Adult (e.l. eastern Swabian Alb 2011) [S] Noctua fimbriata: Adult drying its wings after emergence (e.l. eastern Swabian Alb 2011) [S] Noctua fimbriata: Adult [S] Noctua fimbriata: Adult, drying its wings (e.l. eastern Swabian Alb) [S] Noctua fimbriata: Ovae [M] Noctua fimbriata: Ovae [M] Noctua fimbriata: Young larvae [S] Noctua fimbriata: Young larva [S] Noctua fimbriata: Young larva [S] Noctua fimbriata: Young larva [S] Noctua fimbriata: Young larva (Upper Rhine, October 2012) [M] Noctua fimbriata: Young larva (eastern Swabian Alb, Southern Germany, early November 2010) [S] Noctua fimbriata: Young larva (November 2010) [S] Noctua fimbriata: Half-grown larva [S] Noctua fimbriata: Half-grown larva [S] Noctua fimbriata: Half-grown larva in March (Swabian Alb, Southern Germany) [M] Noctua fimbriata: Half-grown larva (e.l. Swabian Alb, Southern Germany) [S] Noctua fimbriata: Larva in penultimate instar [S] Noctua fimbriata: Larva in penultimate instar [S] Noctua fimbriata: Larva in penultimate instar [S] Noctua fimbriata: Larva in penultimate instar [S] Noctua fimbriata: Larva in penultimate instar [S] Noctua fimbriata: Larva in penultimate instar [S] Noctua fimbriata: Larva (eastern Swabian Alb) [M] Noctua fimbriata: Larva [S] Noctua fimbriata: Larva [S] Noctua fimbriata: Larva [S] Noctua fimbriata: Larva [S] Noctua fimbriata: Larva [S] Noctua fimbriata: Larva (e.l. Swabian Alb, Southern Germany) [S] Noctua fimbriata: Pupa [S] Noctua fimbriata: Pupa [S] Noctua fimbriata: Pupa [S] Noctua fimbriata: Typical larval habitats are underwood-rich forest roads as here on the eastern Swabian Alb at oviposition time in September 2010. [N] Noctua fimbriata: Larvalhabitat on the eastern Swabian Alb (young larvae in herbal layer, November 2010). [N] Noctua fimbriata: Larvalhabitat on the eastern Swabian Alb (young larvae in herbal layer, November 2010). [N] Noctua fimbriata: Larval habitat in the northern Black Forest in late February 2011. At this time the larvae are already feeding again (at first on herbs such as Digitalis or grasses, then also on buds of woods). [N]

Host plants:
The larvae are polyphagous, in the spring often Rubus and other shrubs. The young caterpillars feed preferredly on grasses. So I met wintered, already feeding caterpillars in clumps of Avenella flexuosa in late February (low Black forest).

Habitat:
Noctua fimbriata is an ubiquist, but occurs often on forest edges, in woodlands with rich understory and in loose shrub associations.

Life cycle:
The caterpillar overwinters and can be searched with a pocket lamp in spring (April, early May) when they climb young trees to devour the buds. During the day, I found caterpillars in late February or early March under rocks in a xerothermous quarry, under dead leaves in a hedge and at the foot of walls under dead plants. The moths fly in the summer. I found eggs in September at leaf undersides of Salix cinerea. In the autumn the caterpillars usually appear only in the course of October when tapping the herbaceous layer.

Remarks:
Noctua fimbriata is common and not threatened. The distribution extends across much of Europe and at least Western Asia.



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