Apamea monoglypha
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~50%
Apamea monoglypha, the dark arches, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Johann Siegfried Hufnagel in 1766. It is a common, sometimes abundant, European species. It is found in most of Europe except northernmost Fennoscandia and the southern parts of the Iberian Peninsula and Greece. The species is also found in Anatolia, Turkestan, Western Asia and Central Asia, Siberia and Mongolia. In the Alps it is found up to heights of 2,500 meters. The smaller subspecies sardoa is found on Sardinia and Corsica.
This species has a wingspan of 46 to 54 mm, the forewings varying from pale greyish brown to almost black and cryptically patterned. All but the darkest individuals usually have an obvious black mark close to the dorsum and a pale zigzag subterminal line. The hindwings are whitish with darker venation and a dark shaded band at the margin. The larva is dull whitish grey or dark grey; dorsal line pale: lateral line broadly pale; tubercles large and black; head and thoracic plate brown black.
Forewing varying from whitish ochreous, through pale and dark grey to brownish grey, dark brown and black; a black streak from... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Snowdonia National Park | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 2 | Cairngorms National Park | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 3 | Vanoise National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 4 | Wadden Sea National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 5 | Mercantour National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 6 | Bavarian Forest National Park | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 7 | Sierra Nevada National Park | 🇪🇸 Spain | |
| 8 | Pyrénées National Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 9 | Cévennes National Park | 🇫🇷 France |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Liverpool | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 2 | London | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 3 | Manchester | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 4 | Birmingham | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 5 | Leeds | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 6 | Helsinki | 🇫🇮 Finland | |
| 7 | Minsk | 🇧🇾 Belarus | |
| 8 | Berlin | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 9 | Nizhny Novgorod | 🇷🇺 Russia | |
| 10 | Hamburg | 🇩🇪 Germany |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Dark Arches sighting in Sierra Nevada National Park on a given day, based on 9 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 390th most-seen of the 479 insects we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.
July
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Dark Arches in Sierra Nevada National Park on a given day, against under 5% in September to May, the lowest months. That is one of Sierra Nevada National Park's driest months, with about 30 mm of rain against 130 mm in March.
Between 6 and 9 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Dark Arches sightings with a recorded time, and about 6 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is seen both by day and at night.
7th of 9
Of the 9 parks where we can rate Dark Arches sightings, Sierra Nevada National Park ranks 7th at about 10%. The best odds are in Snowdonia National Park (United Kingdom, about 30%), Cairngorms National Park (United Kingdom, about 20%) and Vanoise National Park (France, about 10%).
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Dark Arches is recorded against all the insects logged in Sierra Nevada National Park (9 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
