Euxoa ochrogaster, the red-backed cutworm, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It is found from Iceland and northern Europe, through the Baltic to the Amur region. In North America, it is found from Alaska to Newfoundland and Labrador, south into the northern part of the United States, south in Rocky Mountains to Arizona and New Mexico.

Euxoa ochrogaster
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Superfamily: Noctuoidea
Family: Noctuidae
Genus: Euxoa
Species:
E. ochrogaster
Binomial name
Euxoa ochrogaster
(Guenée, 1852)
Synonyms
  • Euxoa rossica
  • Noctua ochrogaster Guenée, 1852
  • Agrotis insignata Walker, [1857]
  • Agrotis illata Walker, 1857
  • Agrotis subsignata Walker, 1865
  • Agrotis cinereomacula Morrison, 1875
  • Agrotis turris Grote, 1875
  • Agrotis gularis Grote, 1875
  • Agrotis islandica Staudinger, 1857

Adults are on wing from the end of July to beginning of September.

The larvae feed on a variety of broad leaf plants and grasses, including Plantago species. The species is economically important on Helianthus annuus in North America.

The moths can be affected by a fungus Tarichium megaspermum (from order Entomophthorales), in British Columbia, Canada.[1]

Subspecies edit

  • Euxoa ochrogaster ochrogaster
  • Euxoa ochrogaster islandica (Iceland)
  • Euxoa ochrogaster rossica (Lithuania to Amur)

References edit

  1. ^ Bucher, G.E.; MacLeod, D.M. (March 1974). "Rediscovery of Tarichium megaspermum (Entomophthoraceae) in Canadian cutworms (Noctuidae)". Journal of Invertebrate Pathology. 23 (2): 157–163. doi:10.1016/0022-2011(74)90179-7.

External links edit