David Element
Wildlife Photography and Digital Video Images
____________________________________________________Moths
121 – Setaceous Hebrew Character Moths
SETACEOUS HEBREW CHARACTER MOTH Xestia
c-nigrum
SETACEOUS HEBREW CHARACTER MOTH Xestia
c-nigrum
·
The contrasting black marks on the forewings of the
Setaceous Hebrew Character Moth Xestia
c-nigrum (Noctuidae, Noctuinae) that give this moth its vernacular name are
said to resemble a Hebrew character – possibly one version of the letter ‘nun’ (phonetically
‘n’). However, the link is tenuous, as neither the vernacular nor the
scientific names seem to be particularly accurate descriptors for letters belonging
to either alphabet! In fact, the distinctive pale, roughly triangular marks adjacent
to these black patches are more useful for confirming the moth’s identification
as it belongs to a large family with many similar looking species, and telling
them apart is often complicated by variability in the intensity and colour of
their markings or by wing-damage in worn specimens. ‘Setaceous’ refers to the bristly
hairs on the normally invisible thorax.
-> Moths 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140
-> Species Index, Common Names
-> Species Index, Scientific
Names
-> Site Index
-> Home