The wingspan is 40–46 mm.[2][3] Forewing grey brown or pale liver coloured; inner and outer lines double, obscurely marked; a thick black streak from base below cell, and a more diffuse one obliquely below it above inner margin; claviform stigma small, with black outline; orbicular oblique with brown centre and pale ring; reniform pale, defined only on its inner edge by a brown line with a pale dot at lower end, the cell between them dark brown; submarginal line pale, indented on each fold, preceded by black blotches on costa and on the folds and followed by dark marks on the latter only; hindwing brownish fuscous, paler towards base, with dark cell spot; very frequently the whole forewing is suffused with reddish brown, throwing up the paler transverse markings; this is the form characterea Hbn. - an extreme development of this, with the basal area above the black streak remaining prominently pale is the ab. epomidion Haw.;- alopecuroides Spul., from the Bukowina, denotes a form in which the whole forewing is red-brown, as in the form of rurea F. called alopecurus Esp.; - discrepans Stgr., [Now ssp. of Apamea aquila Donzel, 1837] from the Ussuri, is described as being much darker, the forewings coloured as in gemina Hbn.
The moth flies in June and July.
Habitat in Ireland
The larvae feed on grasses and other low plants.[3][4][5]
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