100 Species #31: Large Yellow Underwing Cutworm

[urbpan]

Alexis found this Large Yellow Underwing Cutworm (Noctua pronuba while cleaning up the front garden. Too bad we don't have chickens yet, it would have made a nice snack for them.

Cutworms are moth larvae that sleep in the soil or leaf litter during the day, and wake at night to nibble the tender stems of young plants, cutting them to the ground. This cutworm species is native to Europe, but was discovered in North America in the late twentieth century. It overwinters in the caterpillar stage (which explains why such a large larva is already present in early spring) then metamorphoses into a large brown moth with yellow underwings. The moth is well-camouflaged when the underwings are covered, but it can expose them suddenly to startle predators.

This is a new species to the blog! It almost certainly is an urban species as well, but since we didn't do as much pawing through garden dirt before, it didn't appear when I was doing urban species lists. It feeds on almost any plant, including many urban species like dandelion, hawkweed, plantain, and violets.