Large Yellow Underwing

Noctua pronuba

The large yellow underwing is a moth, the type species for the family Noctuidae. It is an abundant species throughout the Palearctic realm, one of the most common and most familiar moths of the region. In some years the species is highly migratory with large numbers appearing suddenly in marginal parts of the range. Source

Where it is now

In the last 8 weeks this insect was recorded 2,624 times across 29 areas (each area is a 5 degree square).

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Movement and weather

Each season it is first heard regularly where daytime highs are around 20°C (typically 20 to 23°C, from 12 areas). That holds across 30° of latitude, which suggests its timing follows temperature more than the calendar.

Over the weeks it was present in the past year, its centre in Europe ranged from 44°N in October to 60°N in September, about 1,800 km apart.

Arrival dates

The week it was first heard regularly in each region, after at least six weeks away. Dates differ from south to north, so a region has a range.

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Figures are effort corrected and come from automatic sound identification, which makes mistakes. How this is measured and how it compares with human observers.