Diacrisia sannio

Clouded buff
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Superfamily: Noctuoidea
Family: Erebidae
Tribe: Arctiini
Subtribe: Micrarctiina
Genus: Diacrisia
Species: D. sannio
Binomial name
Diacrisia sannio
(Linnaeus, 1758)

Diacrisia sannio, the clouded buff, is a moth of the family Erebidae. It is found in the Palearctic ecozone from Ireland to Siberia.It is not in North Africa.In the Russian Far East (Amur, Primorye, Sakhalin, Kunashir), eastern China, Korea and Japan it is replaced by Diacrisia irene.

Arctiidae - Diacrisia sannio
Illustration from John Curtis's British Entomology Volume 5

Technical description and variation

For a key to the terms used, see Glossary of entomology terms.

The wingspan is 35–50 mm.Forewing of the male lemon-yellow, hindwing ivory yellow, both wings with a greyish red median spot and pink margin. In the female the body and wings are suffused with brownish red.— In pallida Stgr., which occurs constantly in Central Asia and aberratively also in Europe, the black colour is reduced. — In irene Butl.[now full species Diacrisia irene Butler, 1881], which occurs in Japan and locally also elsewhere in the Palearctic region, and is regarded by Matsumura as a separate species, the black colour is absent on the hindwing of the male and the median spot on the forewing is generally reduced. — In uniformis Stgr. [D. s. mortua (Staudinger, 1887)] from Syr-Darja, the last trace of black and pink has disappeared, so that extreme specimens of this form are quite uniformly pale yellow on both sides of the wings and body. —In specimens from Ferghana, the Issyk-kul and the neighbouring countries further east in Central Asia, the red inner margin of the forewing is entirely absent, the black on the hindwing being however present. This is the form mortua Stgr. [D. s. mortua (Staudinger, 1887)] — Further eastward, at the Amur, a form occurs with very sharp black markings, and with the ground colour of the hindwing strongly tinged with reddish, [[Diacrisia irene|amuri]] Butler, 1881]] Stgr.[1]

Subspecies

Biology

The moth flies June to July depending on the location.

Larva dark brown, with foxy red hairs, light dorsal line spotted with red, and white stigmata.The larvae feed on various shrubs and herbaceous plants. Galium spec., Plantago spec., Taraxacum sect. Ruderalia, Epilobium spec., Urtica spec.

References

  1. ↑ Seitz, A. Ed. Die Großschmetterlinge der Erde, Verlag Alfred Kernen, Stuttgart Band 2: Abt. 1, Die Großschmetterlinge des palaearktischen Faunengebietes,Die palaearktischen Spinner und Schwärmer, 1912- 1913


This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/15/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.