Moth Mondays - A hunk of Burnished Brass... twice

MOTH MONDAYS

The Burnished Brass

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Arthropoda

Class: Insecta

Order: Lepidoptera

Superfamily:Noctuidae
Genus:  Diachrysia
Species:  D. chrysitis
Binomial name
Diachrysia chrysitis

and

The Burnished Brass

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Arthropoda

Class: Insecta

Order: Lepidoptera

Superfamily: Noctuidae
Genus:  Diachrysia
Species:  D. chrysitis
Binomial name
Diachrysia stenochrysis
Synonyms
Diachrysia tutti
Phytometra stenochrysis
Plusia tutti
Phytometra multauri

We've had  the Burnished Brass [ Diachrysia chrysitis or D. stenochrysis] le Vert-Doré or le Plusie confluente in the trap twice this year... at first I thought these two were grossly different species...
the first was caught in the moth trap on the 23rd June 2016....
the second was caught in the moth trap on the 12th September 2016....
now Chinnery only shows the first form....and the second form is quite close to the Slender Burnished Brass and I'd put it down as that.
BUT... I was wrong... it is Tutt's Burnished Brass [Diachrysia chrysitis ab.juncta]... a variation on the Burnished Brass....

BUT....BUT.... I am now very confused and confumbled... the two moths look very different and the French class them as different species... but the British book "Concise Guide to the Moths of Great Britain and Ireland" have them as two forms of the same species... and the edition I have is the 2014 reprint of the 2007 edition

The two forms are a brown Noctuid type moth with outstanding metallic patches on the wings.... as are the Slender and the Scarce... the French name of le Vert-Doré describes the first form perfectly... as you can see from the top picture... a brassy green-gold.

The second form, however, is very golden in most cases... a most striking moth indeed...
BUT... under D.chrysitis in the Wiki is also a form aurea... which, from the description sounds like Tutt's... and two other forms...
The entry for D. stenochrysis is a "stub" and adds little to the argument...

This picture shown here with permission of Paul Kitchener doesn't help me at all....

You will see from this picture....
that the one on the right has pale brown wing areas.. and greeny-gold areas...
whilst the left one has much more chocolately brown area... with a wonderful gold.

Paul has supplied pictures to UK Moths... where ONLY this form is shown... but not classed as Tutt's at all.

This is what the Wiki [usually good on moths] says...
in the ab. juncta [Tutt] the median fascia is more or less widely broken in the middle, the two brassy green areas becoming confluent; in ab. aurea [Huene] the green is deep golden, with the golden bands confluent;
So, based on that, the above moths are Tutt's on the right and the aurea form on the left...
confused yet... I am!!

Whilst you try and sort that out I will tell you that this wonderful moth occurs... in the various forms... right across the Palearctic from Spain and France to Japan... but not the Greek Islands.

The hind wing is a milk chocolatey-brown with a paler edge...
The caterpillar is bright green... with white stripes along the back and sides... the one above the legs being the most visible... and it feeds on nettles, labiates and thistles.

This is the same moth as the first... D. chrysitis
The first is a somewhat blurred picture... but it was at 6.40am!!
This is a better one... but it doesn't show the metallised areas as well...
In the first picture you can see the front one is distinctly metallic as well as greenish.

This is the second form... possibly D. stenochrysis... or D.c. ab. aurea...or Tutt's??
This shows the metallised areas very well... but I am still not quite right.

Next Monday... the Buff Tip

NB: The information from the other sources is now placed at the bottom of the post.

________________________________________________________

Sources

Other than Wikipedia.... and personal observations!
Moths and Butterflies of Europe and North Africa [ also known as Leps.it]
A superbly illustrated site.... marvellous on the Micromoths...
but difficult to use on a tablet/iPad.... an awful lot of scrolling needed.

Lepidoptera.eu   An excellent resource... with distribution maps

UK Moths This is quite a simple site... but nicely put together.

The German site Lepiforum.de - For really good samples of photos...
including museum specimens: to use....
Enter the Latin name and then select the Latin name from the list of pages found.
There is probably a lot more on this site... but I don't read [or speak] German!!

________________________________________________________
From the Wiki:

Diachrysia chrysitis, the burnished brass, is a species of moth of the family Noctuidae. It is found in Europe, the Caucasus, Russia, Russian Far East and Siberia. In the south of Europe the range extends to southern Spain, southern Italy and the Balkan peninsula. It is lacking on most of the Greek Islands. In the north it extends into almost to the Arctic circle and far north Russia. In the east the range extends to the Amur region and Japan.

Description
The wingspan is 28–35 mm. The length of the forewings is 16–18 mm. Forewing brassy green; the basal patch and broad median fascia, widening at costa, purplish brown; subterminal line preceded by a shade showing deeper green in certain lights; the terminal area paler brown; the three stigmata with dark outlines; hindwing fuscous with the fringe pale;
in the ab. juncta [Tutt] the median fascia is more or less widely broken in the middle, the two brassy green areas becoming confluent;
in ab. aurea [Huene] the green is deep golden, with the golden bands confluent;
ab. disjuncta [Schultz], golden with the bands not confluent;
while in ab. scintillans [Schultz] the bands are dull blue green.

The moth flies from May to October depending on the location.

Larva green, with many fine whitish dorsal lines; sinuous white lines along the sides and a white stripe above the feet. The larvae feed on various herbaceous plants, such as nettle, Lamium, thistles and oregano.

Diachrysia stenochrysis is a species of moth of the Noctuidae family. It is found in Europe, the Caucasus, the Far East, Primorye, Ussuri, Korea, Manchuria, Mongolia, Transbaikalia, Siberia and Japan.

The wingspan is 32–34 mm.

The larvae feed on Urtica species and other plants

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From UK Moths

Burnished Brass Diachrysia chrysitis
(Linnaeus, 1758)
Wingspan 28-35 mm.

Common over most of the British Isles, this spectacular moth has large areas of metallic colouring on the forewings.

The species is double-brooded, with moths on the wing between June and September.

The larvae feed on plants such as nettle (Urtica dioica), and the species inhabits gardens, waste ground and marshy areas.

Moth Mondays - The Black Arches

MOTH MONDAYS

The Black Arches

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Arthropoda

Class: Insecta

Order: Lepidoptera

Superfamily: Noctuoidea

Family: Erebidae
Genus:     Lymantria
Species:     L. monacha
Binomial name
Lymantria monacha

This moth... a male of the  The Black Arches or Nun moth (Lymantria monacha) la Nonne...
I have only seen this once... the males are attracted to light...and this came to the door!
The flight period is July and August and these pictures were taken 12th July 2011.

The fact that it is male can be seen by the feathery antennae... in fact this moth is renown for the size of these.

It is a very variable moth... from paler than this to a black, melanistic form...
take a look at the German site for some fourteen examples....
but this one is the one usually illustrated in guides...
the hindwings are grey/grey brown with a more or less white wavy pattern on the outer edge....
The abdomen has more... or less... of the black and pink/orange stripes shown here.

The second of only two shots...
but, fortunately shows the stripey abdomen.
The white dots on these pictures are in fact... wing scales!

The caterpillar is hairy and has a dark, geometrically patterned back... with a diamond pattern in the centre...
it feeds on pine and spruce, where it can reach pest proportions... but secondary food plants are oak, beech, lime and willow...

The pupa is coarsely hairy... and looks as if it pupated inside the caterpillar's skin.


Next Monday... another surprise.... I haven't decided yet! Too much choice...

NB: The information from the other sources is now placed at the bottom of the post.

________________________________________________________

Sources

Other than Wikipedia.... and personal observations!
Moths and Butterflies of Europe and North Africa [ also known as Leps.it]
A superbly illustrated site.... marvellous on the Micromoths...
but difficult to use on a tablet/iPad.... an awful lot of scrolling needed.

Lepidoptera.eu   An excellent resource... with distribution maps

UK Moths This is quite a simple site... but nicely put together.

The German site Lepiforum.de - For really good samples of photos...
including museum specimens: to use....
Enter the Latin name and then select the Latin name from the list of pages found.
There is probably a lot more on this site... but I don't read [or speak] German!!

________________________________________________________
From the Wiki:

The Black Arches or Nun moth (Lymantria monacha) la Nonne is a small Palaearctic moth. It is considered a forest pest.

Description
The moths of Lymantria monacha have a wingspan of 40 to 50 mm. They have white forewings with black connected wavy arches which gives the moth its name. The light brown hindwings have white fringes having black spots. They also have a characteristic biscuit-coloured abdomen with a black band. Females are larger and have elongated wings.

The eggs are oval, light brown or light red. Larvae are whitish grey to blackish, with grey hairs, red and blue warts, and a dark longitudinal dorsal line which is interrupted or broadened into spots in places. Pupa is golden glossy red-brown or dark brown, with reddish hairs dorsally and rather long anal point.

Technical description and variation
White forewing with black basal spots and four sharply angulate black transverse lines, the second of which is the broadest; hindwing greyish white and grey. Abdomen light rosepink. The species varies strongly and has received the following aberrational names,
nigra : The two central bands are confluent at the costal and posterior margins, forming black spots, or the whole median area is dark, the red of the abdomen usually weaker,
eremita : Forewing and abdomen smoke-brown or blackish grey, the former with black markings,
atra : Forewing uniformly black, without markings, hindwing greyish brown, abdomen black,
lutea : is a light form in which the central bands are interrupted; the red colour of the abdomen is equally deep almost to the thorax,
flavoabdominalis : has the abdomen yellow instead of red;
subfusca : female is distinguished by everything which is black in true monacha being yellowish brown, and the abdomen being also yellowish brown instead of red;
obsoleta : the dark transverse bands in the median area of the forewing are absent, while they remain in the basal and outer-marginal areas.
All these names were given to European specimens.

Range
This moth can be found in most of Europe including British Isles and in temperate regions of the Palearctic East to Japan.

Life cycle
The larvae hibernate when young, remain together in batches and are full grown in June.

Food plants and pest significance
The larvae feed preferentially on spruce (Picea abies) and pine (Pinus sylvestris). They also feed on silver fir (Abies alba), European larch (Larix decidua), aspen (Populus tremula), hornbeam (Carpinus betulus), European beech (Fagus sylvatica), pedunculate oak (Quercus robur), apple (Malus domestica), sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus), bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus) and bogberry (Vaccinium uliginosum). In spring the larvae consume the first buds, then later the needles. A single caterpillar eats about 200 pine, or 1000 spruce needles and twice as many are damaged by biting off. Spruces die at 70 percent needle loss and pine at 90 percent. There is also a danger also increased of secondary infections by longhorn beetles, bark beetles, fungi or other pathogens. Therefore, outbreaks can cause major damage in forestry.

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From UK Moths

Black Arches Lymantria monacha
(Linnaeus, 1758)

Wingspan 30-50 mm.

This attractive black and white species often shows traces of bright pink on the body, especially the abdomen, which however is normally concealed when at rest.

The males, which can be attracted to light, are smaller than the females, but have very large, feathery antennae.

Distributed mainly throughout the southern half of Britain, chiefly in woodland habitats, the adults fly in July and August.

The larvae feed in the spring, usually on oak (Quercus), but sometimes on coniferous trees.

Bring out the feeders

During the summer, birds should be finding their food  - seeds, insects, fruit - in the environment, thereby teaching their young to do likewise.
So we put the feeders away until times get harder.
With regular frosts overnight in our frost-pocket of a valley bottom from late November, by early December we feel that times are hard enough.
And with the current freeze, they come into their own....

We have two sets of feeders.
One set is under the cherry tree outside the sitting room windows, where three feeders are suspended from a naturally twisty pole.
Tim has attached the pole to the wall using a carabiner, so that the entire set can be released and swung towards you, making restocking much easier.
The cherry, elder, hawthorn and alder provide plenty of perches for incoming birds to size up the situation, and for outgoing birds to eat their plunder.
A chicken-wire partition segregates the cats from the birds, giving the ground-feeders a safe area for themselves where the cats can't rush them.
The chickens haunt this area too, when they are allowed, picking up dropped morsels.

Late for lunch

These four feeders are stocked with:

• peanuts (guaranteed no fungal infection)
• a fat block "aux insectes" (dried mealworms) from the UK via the RSPB Amazon store
• fat balls "aux graines" also from Gamm Vert but probably in the future from the LPO
• mixed grains for "les oiseaux du ciel" from E. Leclerc or Super U
• insect rich suet pellets... new last year... and share the same feeder as the peanuts

The peanuts are going down well with the bluetits and great tits.

If I just twist it that way a bit, it'll come out

I think I'll have that one

The fat block took a little while to catch on last year, but once the tits worked out what it was, they went at it with jack hammers, after the dried larvae. On sunny days for most of the winter so far, however, there have been plenty of insects around, and the insectivores were well supplied with fresh meat. Long-tailed tits swirl past, picking insects off the cherry bark, and are gone in an instant. An agile team of Chiffchaffs kept us entertained last year with their acrobatics. They snatch flies off the wall, off the windows and out of the air. Every so often there is a bang as a chiffchaff hits a window, and several times one of us comes eye to eye with a fluttering bird not two feet away on the other side of the glass. They even land on the windowsill as we stand watching them.

Chiffchaff
[photo transformed into a watercolour by Tim using Photoshop and a Redfield plugin]

Where they are this year... who knows??

Normally, the seed eaters still find much food in the wild at this time of the year and the grain feeder hardly goes down at all. That changed this weekend when the seed started to vanish rapidly.

Also, normally, big flocks of assorted finches work the field edges further along the road to Le Petit Pressigny. Since October we have only seen half a dozen goldfinches in our meadow, no quarrelsome greenfinches, and no siskins. This is a repeat almost of last year... except we had greenfinches... this year, one pair... and that was last week. The first bramblings (charcoal grey hood, orange breast, white underneath) are yet to be spotted.

A male Brambling on the sunflower feeder we've just replaced.
This held a good bucket load...
and we'd blocked up two of the holes to slow the flow of seed...
but was a devil to fill!!

We rely on the greed of the goldfinches to knock down seed for the ground feeders. We give the seed feeder a shake every so often to make sure the dunnock, the sparrows, the blackbirds, the moorhens, the chaffinches and the pheasants can find something to eat on the ground.

Sometimes the block inside its holder....
gets to the "tits only" stage!

We introduced the sunflower seeds in January 2015, when the goldfinches finished gleaning the crumbling sunflower heads that remain in those tricky corners of fields where the man with the seed drill will go but the man with the combine harvester won't.The pheasants like sunflower seeds too. We have seen up to nine females and one splendid male who spent his time herding the females and posing about rather than eating.



Last year the cherry tree had a visit from a woodpigeon which behaved rather oddly. It gave the impression it was hiding from something, possibly the hunters making a racket on the hillside opposite. It did not seem concerned to be so close to the house, or that it could see us through the windows. When Tim went out to check that it was OK, it merely stood up. Well feathered and plump, it looked healthy enough, and we could see no signs of injury. It flew in to the lowest branch of the cherry tree, sat there peering across the meadow for half an hour, then flew away.

But the self-appointed king of the cherry tree feeders is the robin.
He bullies everyone else, squaring up to the great tits as they come in for some tucker.
He emulates the tits in hanging from the peanut feeder to mine for cacahuetes.
His favourite is the fat balls, and he stands on the topmost ball to hammer down on it.
Ever watchful, ever busy, he keeps us entertained for hours - but there's so much to do!
Can't sit and watch birds all day! Just another five minutes.....

New for this year is the GRAND feeder... 

This is how grand...

six ports for the birds to feed from...
it was destined for the meadow set-up to be filled with sunflower seed...
but, has proved far too long... so long in fact....
that the pheasants would have been able to stuff themselves out of the bottom two ports!!

It has its own hanger!!
Fixed to the tree!!

So, it is hung, filled with 1.5 kilos of grain, in the cherry tree...
outside the lounge window.
Because of the size, we have also bought a large tray that fits underneath...
to save some of the inevitable spillage onto the grass beneath the whole assembly.
It will be interesting to see which birds eat from the tray.

Our first Greenfinch of this Winter!!

Bully boy Robin... with the pointy tongue....

The final food type we introduced last year was suet pellets with insect minced into them....
these are mixed in layers with the peanuts... and are proving immensely popular with the Blue and Great Tits.

BUT, despite the entertainment we get from them...
the biggest problem with all these feeders is...
stocking them up...

"Tim off to the feeders with a wheelbarrow of tubs!"
BUT...has he got everything....?

The destination.... the meadow feeders!!

Now... just another few minutes... watching the Lapwings in the field next door........

Moth Mondays - The Convolvulus Hawkmoth

MOTH MONDAYS

The Convolvulus Hawkmoth

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Arthropoda

Class: Insecta

Order: Lepidoptera

Superfamily: Noctuoidea

Family: Sphingidae
Genus: Agrius
Species: A. convolvuli
Binomial name
Agrius convolvuli

A migrant species, the Convolvulus Hawkmoth [Agrius convolvuli] le Sphinx du liseron is a very large Hawkmoth... and, as you can see above, very well camouflaged at rest!
I call it The Cloaked Alien because it has a very '90s sc-fi alien head on its thorax.

Can you see the face?

The one we caught here had slightly damaged wings... but the wing area is so big, I doubt if it harmed its ability to fly easily. According to the literature they fly extremely strongly.

This one was about 7cm head to tip of wings... seen below against a convolvulus flower... as it stood out like a sore thumb, I did not leave it there but placed it on a Crack Willow trunk... [top picture]... where it almost vanished.
The forewings are pale grey with somewhat irregular darker markings.... the hindwings are pale brown with darker horizontal stripes.... the antennae are thin in both sexes... the female's being shorter... and they have huge dark eyes.

The huge eye... this picture closer... showing spines on the front leg...
something I hadn't noticed earlier.
The top of these two pictures shows wear on the wings...
this is an old girl... I hope she laid in the meadow...
although there is little or no chance of survivors!!

The abdomen looks very similar to our more common Privet Hawkmoth with alternate brown, grey and pink horizontal stripes, not the pink and black stripes of the Privet, with a fine black line on a broader grey background, rather than a brown background.

This is the faded abdomen of an elderly Privet Hawkmoth....
to give some indication of colour of the Convolvulus abdomen...
The black line extends across all segments....
and the grey of the last two segments extends all the way either side of the black line.
A fresh Privet Hawk is much richer in colour.
Susan, of Loire Valley Nature, blogged about a Convolvulus Hawkmoth....
that they had found in 2008... the abdomen is very clearly visible.

The females are larger than the males... and, going on size and shape of the abdomen, this was the female of the species. and probably had a wingspan of around 100 to 110mm.
It has an exceptionally long tongue which can reach the bottom of some of the deepest sources of nectar in flowers like convolvulus and tobacco [Nicotinia]


There are two flight periods... May>June and mid-August > mid-October and the migration usually occurs in the second one... which ties in with this capture at the end of September. They very rarely breed this far north... and the pupae do not survive the winters.
From looking this up, I discover that the caterpillars are some of the most variable I have ever seen... both in colour and pattern!!
The caterpillars on the German site are some of the best as are the Leps.it pictures.... and the latter also shows the enormous tongue on seven of the pictures pictures.


Next Monday... a... er... er.... a surprise.... I haven't decided yet!
(I've close on 200 to choose from....)

NB: The information from the other sources is now placed at the bottom of the post.

________________________________________________________

Sources

Other than Wikipedia.... and personal observations!
Moths and Butterflies of Europe and North Africa [ also known as Leps.it]
A superbly illustrated site.... marvellous on the Micromoths...
but difficult to use on a tablet/iPad.... an awful lot of scrolling needed.

Lepidoptera.eu   An excellent resource... with distribution maps

UK Moths This is quite a simple site... but nicely put together.

The German site Lepiforum.de - For really good samples of photos...
including museum specimens: to use....
Enter the Latin name and then select the Latin name from the list of pages found.
There is probably a lot more on this site... but I don't read [or speak] German!!

________________________________________________________
From the Wiki:

The Convolvulus Hawk-moth, Agrius convolvuli, is a large  hawk-moth. It is common throughout Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia, partly as a migrant.

Description and habits
The wingspan is 80–105 mm. This hawkmoth's basic coloration is in grayish tones, but the abdomen has a broad gray dorsal stripe and pink and black bands edged with white on the sides. The hindwings are light gray with darker broad crosslines.

Its favourite time is around sunset and during the twilight, when it is seen in gardens hovering over the flowers. This moth is very attracted to light, so it is often killed by cars on highways. Its caterpillars eat the leaves of the Convolvulus, hence its Latin name "convolvuli". Other recorded foodplants include a wide range of plants in the Araceae, Convolvulaceae, Leguminosae and Malvaceae families. It can be a pest of cultivated Ipomoea. It feeds on the wing and has a very long proboscis (longer than its body) that enables it to feed on long trumpet-like flowers such as Nicotiana sylvestris.

The caterpillars can be in a number of different colours. As well as brown (pictured on the Wiki page) they have been seen in bright green and black.

Similar species
A. convulvuli is unmistakable in the eastern area of distribution, in the western area of distribution it can be mistaken for Agrius cingulatus. This species, found mainly in South and Central America is repeatedly detected on the western shores of Europe. Agrius cingulatus can be distinguished on the basis of the clearly stronger pink colouring of the abdominal segments and a similarly coloured rear wing base. In addition, Agrius convolvuli forma pseudoconvolvuli [Schaufuss, 1870] has some resemblance with North American species in the genus Manduca, for instance Manduca sexta.

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From UK Moths

Convolvulus Hawk-moth Agrius convolvuli
(Linnaeus, 1758)
Wingspan 80-120 mm.

A large species, with a wingspan of over 10cm, this is a migrant in Britain, appearing sometimes in fairly good numbers.

It most often occurs in late summer and autumn, usually with influxes of other migrant species, when it turns up in light traps and feeding at garden flowers, especially those of the tobacco plant (Nicotiana)

Although larvae are sometimes found in Britain, usually on bindweed (Convolvulus), it does not regularly breed.

Moth Mondays - The Herald

MOTH MONDAYS

The Herald

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Arthropoda

Class: Insecta

Order: Lepidoptera

Family:  Erebidae
Genus:  Scoliopteryx
Species: S. libatrix
Binomial name
Scoliopteryx libatrix

This rather beautiful, medium sized moth...
The Herald [Scoliopteryx libatrix] la Découpure....
I saw for the first time in a cave near here...
covered in moisture as it hibernated in the company of bats...
bats being surveyed by Susan [29/12/2010].

You can see the moisture droplets all over this one!

It is known to hibernate in caves, woodpiles, sheds, attics, etc....
and is renown for being seen at any time of the year.
It flies March to November... the early ones being the ones from hibernation...
the later ones being the newly hatched. These can be spotted feeding on sugars from ripe or over-ripe blackberries... and later, nectaring on Ivy blossom.

From our wood store!!

They are an attractive moth... the French name being particularly apt in my opinion....
the overall shield shape  giving it the English name, along with the copper-hued pattern.
The underwing is drab grey-brown with a paler outer edge.

This shows the underwing... it was in such torpor that I did this without it moving!

The underside is mid-grey-brown... lightly patterned... with an abdomen of the same colour.
It has largely white legs with some brown bands... the legs contrast strongly with the underside... the best selection of pictures to see the underside and the underwing is on the German site mentioned below.[This opens in a new window]

This is a different specimen... one month later, on our trailer cover.
Near some piled wood and leaves... it is sunning itself!

This is another view of the moth sunbathing.

The caterpillars feed on willow, aspen and poplar... all of which we have around here in plenty!! They are however, difficult to spot.... as their long, green spindle-like shape can easily be missed as "part of the leaf"! They pupate between two leaves, stuck together by their silk.

It is a leaf mimic, like the famous Lappet moth... so my presumption is that it hibernates most in piles of leaf litter... its association with caves, woodpiles, etcetera being because that is where it is most easily spotted!


Next Monday... The Convolvulus Hawkmoth!

NB: The information from the other sources is now placed at the bottom of the post.

________________________________________________________

Sources

Other than Wikipedia.... and personal observations!
Moths and Butterflies of Europe and North Africa [ also known as Leps.it]
A superbly illustrated site.... marvellous on the Micromoths...
but difficult to use on a tablet/iPad.... an awful lot of scrolling needed.

Lepidoptera.eu   An excellent resource... with distribution maps

UK Moths This is quite a simple site... but nicely put together.

The German site Lepiforum.de - For really good samples of photos...
including museum specimens: to use....
Enter the Latin name and then select the Latin name from the list of pages found.
There is probably a lot more on this site... but I don't read [or speak] German!!

________________________________________________________
From the Wiki:

The herald (Scoliopteryx libatrix) is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It is found throughout the Palearctic and Nearctic (Holarctic).

Wingspan of about 44 mm.[1] Wings ample; the forewing angled in middle of termen, concave between the angle and the acute apex. Forewing grey mixed with ochreous, with fuscous striae, posteriorly with a rosy tinge: the veins terminally whitish; an irregular median suffusion reaching from base to middle, orange red more or less mixed with yellow; inner and outer lines pale with dark edges; a white spot at base on median vein; a white dot represents the orbicular stigma; reniform formed of two black dots; hindwing fuscous, paler at base.

The Herald's flight period is between June and November, in one or two broods. During the winter the herald moth hibernates in dark, cool structures (e.g. cellars, barns and caves), returning to take wing again from March to June. Its habitat is woodland parks and gardens, and (perhaps consequently) the resting wing pattern resembles a dead, shrivelled leaf.

Herald caterpillars are long, and of a bright green shade common to many caterpillars. They are distinguished by the thin yellow lines running across the body between segments. When maturity is reached, they pupate between two leaves, in a white cocoon made of silk.

Food plants:
As larvae:    Willow    Aspen    Poplar

As adults:    Ivy blossom    Ripe blackberries

________________________________________________________
From UK Moths

The Herald  Scoliopteryx libatrix

(Linnaeus, 1758)
Wingspan 40-45 mm.

Quite a spectacular species, this colourful moth overwinters as an adult, and as a result, can be one of the last species to be seen in one year, and one of the first in the next. It is also sometimes found hibernating inside barns and outbuildings.

The adults are attracted to both light and sugar, and the species is fairly common and well distributed over much of Britain, though it is less common in Scotland.

The larvae feed on willow (Salix) and poplar (Populus).

Moth Mondays - The Orange Footman

MOTH MONDAYS

The Orange Footman

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Arthropoda

Class: Insecta

Order: Lepidoptera

Superfamily: Noctuoidea

Family: Arctiidae
Genus:     Wittia [formerly Eilema]
Species:     W. sororcula
Binomial name
Wittia sororcula
[formerly... and in most books...
and all the sites linked below..
Eilema sororcula]

We've only had an Orange Footman [Wittia sororcula] le Manteau jaune here the once...
it was caught in the moth trap on the 21st July 2016....
now it will be interesting to see if we get them this year.

They are a distinctive moth.... certainly a Footman by shape... but with the hind section of the apricot orange forewings more convex than the other footmen... and it has black legs.

The books show orangey-cream hindwings and a yellow-grey, yellow-tipped abdomen.
The spikily hairy caterpillar has a black lump at each end and in the middle...
joined by a black line...and the sides are marbled with orange dots at regular intervals.
Again, like other Footman caterpillars, it feeds on lichens.


Next Monday... a change from the Footmen.... I haven't decided yet!

NB: The information from the other sources is now placed at the bottom of the post.

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Sources

Other than Wikipedia.... and personal observations!
Moths and Butterflies of Europe and North Africa [ also known as Leps.it]
A superbly illustrated site.... marvellous on the Micromoths...
but difficult to use on a tablet/iPad.... an awful lot of scrolling needed.

Lepidoptera.eu   An excellent resource... with distribution maps

UK Moths This is quite a simple site... but nicely put together.

The German site Lepiforum.de - For really good samples of photos...
including museum specimens: to use....
Enter the Latin name and then select the Latin name from the list of pages found.
There is probably a lot more on this site... but I don't read [or speak] German!!

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From the Wiki:

Wittia sororcula, the orange footman, is a moth of the family Arctiidae. It is found in Europe, Anatolia and further east across the Palearctic to southern Siberia and the Amur basin to China.

The wingspan is 27–30 mm. Forewing with the costa strongly convex and therefore the apical portion of the forewing considerably broader than in the forms of the luterella -group. Head, thorax, end of abdomen and the forewing bright golden yellow, the hindwing of male but little paler; in the female both wings slightly paler orange yellow. In contradistinction to lutarella, the costal area of the hindwing above and beneath is never black.
Subspecies

    Wittia sororcula sororcula
    Wittia sororcula orientis (Daniel, 1954)

Biology
The moth flies from April to June depending on the location. Larva blackish, with two yellow dorsal stripes with red dots and white spots. The larvae feed on lichen on trees, both on conifers  and on deciduous trees. Can be obtained by beating saplings, also in bushes and in the grass, sometimes feeding at flowers in the daytime.

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From UK Moths

Orange Footman Eilema sororcula
(Hufnagel, 1766)
Wingspan 27-30 mm.

A woodland species, this moth is distributed in the southern half of Britain, rarely reaching further north than East Anglia.

The single brood flies in May and June, when it can be attracted to light.

The caterpillars live on lichens growing on the trunks of oak (Quercus) and beech (Fagus) trees.