About the The Chestnut
Conistra vaccinii, the chestnut, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in 1761. It is distributed throughout Europe, North Africa and east through the Palearctic to Siberia. The species occurs on some Mediterranean islands (Balearics, Corsica, and Sardinia), in Northern Fennoscandia, and most of Europe except for southern Spain. The range extends south from Morocco in the west to Mediterranean North Africa, through Anatolia to Turkestan and Western and Central Siberia. In the German central uplands, it rises to about 1200 meters.
The wingspan is 28–36 mm. Pattern and colouring are extremely variable. The colour varies from dove grey to dark grey brown, with light brown, light red, reddish-brown to black-brown markings. This has led to the distinction of formae (forms). The apex of the front wing is slightly concave. The head and thorax are coloured mostly according to the wing colour; the abdomen is partially or completely reddish brown. The inner and outer, serrated crossbars are usually darker than the colour and more or less clearly defined. These are often white lined specimens with much darker crossbars... Wikipedia →