Moths of North Carolina
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View PDFNoctuidae Members:
Agrotis Members:
40 NC Records

Agrotis vetusta (Walker, 1856) - Old Man Dart Moth

Taxonomy
Superfamily: Noctuoidea Family: NoctuidaeSubfamily: NoctuinaeTribe: NoctuiniP3 Number: 933506.00 MONA Number: 10641.00
Comments: One of twenty-three species in this genus that occur in North America north of Mexico (Lafontaine and Schmidt, 2010), seven of which have been recorded in North Carolina
Identification
Field Guide Descriptions: Covell (1984); Beadle and Leckie (2012)Online Photographs: MPG, BugGuide, iNaturalist, Google, BAMONA, GBIF, BOLD                                                                                 
Wingspan: 3.5 - 4.2 cm (Covell, 1984)
Adult ID Requirements: Identifiable from good quality photos of unworn specimens.
Distribution in North Carolina
Distribution:
County Map: Clicking on a county returns the records for the species in that county.
Flight Dates:
 High Mountains (HM) ≥ 4,000 ft.
 Low Mountains (LM) < 4,000 ft.
 Piedmont (Pd)
 Coastal Plain (CP)

Click on graph to enlarge
Habitats and Life History
Habitats: Generally associated with sandy habitats (Forbes, 1954) and nearly all of our records come from barrier islands. One historic record comes from the Sandhills and one recent record comes from the top of Mt. Jefferson, probably representing a migrant.
Larval Host Plants: Polyphagous, reportedly feeding on a wide range of herbaceous plants, including many crop species (Robinson et al., 2010). Among the hosts listed by Covell (1984) are corn, cotton, lettuce, peach, tomato, turnip, and watermelon. We do not have any feeding records in North Carolina. - View
Wikipedia
See also Habitat Account for Dry-Xeric Sand Barrens and Glades
Status in North Carolina
Natural Heritage Program Status:
Natural Heritage Program Ranks: G5 S4
State Protection: Has no legal protection, although permits are required to collect it on state parks and other public lands.
Comments:

 Photo Gallery for Agrotis vetusta - Old Man Dart Moth

Photos: 11

Recorded by: R. Newman on 2023-11-06
Carteret Co.
Comment: 		Recorded by: R. Newman on 2023-10-25
Carteret Co.
Comment:
Recorded by: Dean Furbish and Joy Wiggins on 2023-10-25
Pender Co.
Comment: 		Recorded by: Dean Furbish and Joy Wiggins on 2023-10-23
Pender Co.
Comment:
Recorded by: Dean Furbish and Joy Wiggins on 2023-10-23
Pender Co.
Comment: 		Recorded by: R. Newman on 2022-10-24
Carteret Co.
Comment:
Recorded by: Dean Furbish and Joy Wiggins on 2022-10-24
Pender Co.
Comment: 		Recorded by: R. Newman on 2022-10-14
Carteret Co.
Comment:
Recorded by: R. Newman on 2021-10-30
Carteret Co.
Comment: 		Recorded by: Steve Hall and Bo Sullivan on 2021-10-03
Moore Co.
Comment:
Recorded by: Steve Hall and Bo Sullivan on 2020-10-13
Moore Co.
Comment: