Species Details

ABH: 73.319

BF: 2087

Family: Noctuidae

Subfamily: Noctuinae

Taxon: Agrotis segetum

Authority: ([Denis & Schiffermüller], 1775)

Vernacular: Turnip Moth

Account: Common in gardens, farmland, parkland, oak woodland and sand-dunes throughout the British Isles. Underwing pearly white with darker veins, suffused grey in dark examples, a feature shared amongst its congeners only by the larger Pearly Underwing Peridroma saucia and Dark Sword-grass A. ipsilon, which see. Larva feeds on roots and lower stems of cabbages and various root crops, causing sufficient damage to be a serious pest in some areas.

Accounts provided by and used with the kind permission of Mike Wall, Hampshire County Moth Recorder. These will in due course be gradually replaced with species accounts with a Surrey context.

Wingspan: 32 — 42 mm

Surrey Flight Period: 22 Apr (2007) — 27 Nov (2002)

The flight period of overwintering adults are not given. See the flight chart below the distribution map.

Foodplant: Picea sitchensis (Sitka Spruce), Polyphagous.

Foodplant accounts are from the HOSTS database — Natural History Museum, London, UK. (CC0).

Status: Least Concern (LC)

UK BAP:

WCA:

Click here to view the full geology map of Surrey.

Verification Grade: 2 — Care needed to identify 🤔
Further Information: https://www.ukmoths.org.uk/species/agrotis-segetum/
Statistics

* Based on adult records only.

Records: 1046

Individuals: 439

Earliest Year: 1903

Latest Year: 2025

« Previous Random 🎲 Next »