Sand Dart

The wingspan is 32–42 mm. Forewing rufous brown or rufous grey, mixed with white; a costal streak and the veins whitish; stigmata outlined with brown, the reniform with the centre dark; marginal area often paler; hindwing in male white, in female with the veins and margin grey. It is a seacoast species or survives in wastes once washed by the sea; occurring in Britain, France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Russia; in Mongolia and Siberia, and in Egypt. It is a remarkably variable species of which the chief forms are ab. nebulosa Stph. a pale grey form, with the costa, base, and outer margin fuscous; desertorum Bsd.[now a full species] from southern Russia, Siberia and Egypt is grey with the lines and stigmata dark and distinct. In brunnea Tutt the ground colour is deep reddish ochreous with lines and stigmata fuscous; — grisea Tutt is dark slaty grey with the markings obscured; a row of small whitish subterminal dots; — ab. desillii Pierret is a reddish-grey form, sometimes mixed with yellowish, with the markings well developed; — albicosta Tutt is like it, but with a white costal streak in addition: — lastly, there are two nearly white forms ab. weissenbornii Frr., whitish with the stigmata outlined in black and ab. obotritica Schmidt, chalk-white, with a few traces only of lines and stigmata.