The Square-spotted Clay (Xestia stigmatica) is a moth

Moth

A moth is an insect closely related to the butterfly, both being of the order Lepidoptera. Moths form the majority of this order; there are thought to be 150,000 to 250,000 different species of moth , with thousands of species yet to be described...

 of the Noctuidae

Noctuidae

The Noctuidae or owlet moths are a family of robustly-built moths that includes more than 35,000 known species out of possibly 100,000 total, in more than 4,200 genera. They constitute the largest family in the Lepidoptera....

 family. It is found in most of Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

, Transcaucasia, Caucasus

Caucasus

The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...

, Kazachstan, northern Turkey

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

 and northern Iran

Iran

Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...

.

The wingspan

Wingspan

The wingspan of an airplane or a bird, is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777 has a wingspan of about ; and a Wandering Albatross caught in 1965 had a wingspan of , the official record for a living bird.The term wingspan, more technically extent, is...

 is 37-44 mm. Adults are on wing from in August.

The larvae feed on a variety of plants such as Rubus fruticosus, Urtica dioica, Prunus spinosa

Prunus spinosa

Prunus spinosa is a species of Prunus native to Europe, western Asia, and locally in northwest Africa. It is also locally naturalised in New Zealand and eastern North America....

, Primula

Primula

Primula is a genus of 400–500 species of low-growing herbs in the family Primulaceae. They include primrose, auricula, cowslip and oxlip. Many species are grown for their ornamental flowers...

and Betula.

Taxonomy

The species was known as X. rhomboidea up to 1997. Since the taxonomic revision by Hacker in 1998, the name Xestia stigmatica is in use and was used by Fibiger & Skuhle in 2004 as well as on Fauna Europaea. The reason for the change is that Phalaena Noctua rhomboidea as described by Esper in 1790 is actually the Double Square-spot

Double Square-spot

The Double Square-spot is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It is distributed through most of Europe.This species has pale brown forewings marked with two distinctive black marks . The hindwings are similar in colour to the forewings. The wingspan is 36-46 mm...

(X. triangulum), but Esper's name had been misapplied to the Square-spotted Clay.