Iron prominent
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Superfamily:	Noctuoidea
Family:	Notodontidae
Genus:	Notodonta
Species:	N. dromedarius
Binomial name
Notodonta dromedarius (Linnaeus, 1767)

Notodonta dromedarius, the iron prominent, is a moth of the family Notodontidae. The species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1767. It is found in Europe and Anatolia.

The wingspan is 35–40 mm. Notodonta dromedarius has grey or dark brown forewings with rusty and yellowish stains. A broken rust-brown band runs along the outside edge of the forewing. There is a small discal spot, a postmedial crossline which is often broken and outer margins which are suffused dark red. The hindwings are usually pale grey-brown with dark veining. The colouring is very variable and very dark specimens are found.

Description in Seitz-Forewing pale brownish grey to dark drome- grey-brown, with light-edged dark brown pre- and postdiseal dentate bands, the dark discal spot likewise pale- . edged; marginal area more or less distinctly rust -brown around a dark longitudinal streak, the rather broad submarginal band also bright rust-brown. Hindwing grey-brown or predominantly grey. In specimens whose ground-colour is faded on account of age or is not properly developed, the bright markings are very prominent. On the other hand, quite fresh specimens are almost uniformly black-brown, being so dark that the markings are hardly visible. — Central Europe, northward to Esthonia and Livonia, southward to Catalonia and Northern Italy ; Armenia ; according to Graeser also in Amurland. — Larva yellowish green or brown-red, in both cases with a dark red-brown dorsal stripe from head to abdominal segment 4; segments 1 —4 of abdomen each with a large dark red-brown tubercle; an interrupted dark longitudinal marking laterally above the legs. July—August on Willow, Birch, Hazel and Alder. Pupa black-brown, in a cell in the ground. Moth May—June and July-—August. Some of the pupae of the summer-brood hibernate. In the Baltic provinces only one brood.^[1]

The moth flies from April to August depending on the location.

The larvae feed on Corylus avellana, birch, alder and oak.^[2]

• 
  Illustration from John Curtis's British Entomology Volume 5
• 
  Larva

• South R. (1907) The Moths of the British Isles, (First Series), Frederick Warne & Co. Ltd., London & NY: 359 pp. online

• Iron prominent on UKMoths
• Fauna Europaea
• Lepidoptera of Belgium
• Lepiforum e.V.
• De Vlinderstichting (in Dutch)