Setaceous Hebrew character
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Superfamily:	Noctuoidea
Family:	Noctuidae
Genus:	Xestia
Species:	X. c-nigrum
Binomial name
Xestia c-nigrum (Linnaeus, 1758)
Synonyms
Megasema c-nigrum (Linnaeus, 1758) Phalaena c-nigrum Linnaeus, 1758 Bombyx gothica var. nunatrum Esper, 1786 Bombyx gothica var. singularis Esper, 1786 Agrotis degenerata Staudinger, 1889 Agrotis suffusa Tutt, 1892 Agrotis rosea Tutt, 1892 Agrotis umbrata Schultz, 1908 Agrotis fritschi Culot, 1910 Agrotis c-nigrum var. depravata Bang-Haas, 1912 Agrotis nigrescens Buresch, 1914 Agrotis maerens Dannehl, 1925 Agrotis c-nigrum var. kurilana Bryk, 1942 Amathes c-nigrum ignorata Eitschberger, 1972 Xestia adela Franclemont, 1980

The setaceous Hebrew character (Xestia c-nigrum) is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae. It is found in the Palearctic realm. It is a common species throughout Europe and North Asia and Central Asia, South Asia, China, Japan and Korea. It is also found in North America, from coast to coast across Canada and the northern United States to western Alaska. It occurs in the Rocky Mountains from Montana to southern Arizona and New Mexico. In the east, it ranges from Maine to North Carolina. It has recently been recorded in Tennessee.

The forewings of this species are reddish brown with distinctive patterning towards the base: a black mark resembling the Hebrew letter nun (נ), thus inspiring the common name, with a pale cream-coloured area adjacent to this mark. The hindwings are cream coloured. "Setaceous" meaning having bristles, refers to the hairs on the top of the thorax and fringing the wings.

The wingspan is 35–45 mm. Forewing purplish grey or purplish fuscous with a leaden gloss; costal area at middle ochreous, merged with the bluntly triangular orbicular stigma: cell, a submedian basal blotch, and costal spot before apex purplish black; claviform stigma minute; reniform large, the lower lobe purplish; hindwing ochreous whitish, in female with the termen broadly fuscous.^[1]

Lava pink with a broad dark brown subdorsal band. A lateral yellow band with a brown spot on it. Head reddish brown in color.^[2]

• 
  The caterpillar of the species.
• 
  Hebrew letter nun - 15th-century Ashkenazi book-hand.

Two broods are produced each year and the adults are on the wing between May and October.^[1] This moth flies at night and is attracted to light and sugar, as well as flowers such as Buddleia, ivy and ragwort.

The larva is pale brown red-brown or green with obscure paler dorsal and subdorsal lines and a broad pale ochreous spiracular line. It feeds on a huge variety of plants (see list below). The species overwinters as a larva.

1. ^ The flight season refers to the British Isles. This may vary in other parts of the range.

Documented food plants include:^[3]

• Hebrew character (Orthosia gothica), another moth species with similar markings
• Polygrammate hebraeicum

• Chinery, Michael. Collins Guide to the Insects of Britain and Western Europe 1986 (Reprinted 1991)
• Skinner, Bernard. Colour Identification Guide to Moths of the British Isles 1984

• "10199 Xestia c-nigrum (Linnaeus, 1758) - Schwarzes C". Lepiforum e.V. Retrieved January 22, 2019.
• Fauna Europaea
• Savela, Markku. "Xestia c-nigrum (Linnaeus, 1758)". Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms. Retrieved January 22, 2019.