Calophasia platyptera

Calophasia platyptera, the antirrhinum brocade, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Eugenius Johann Christoph Esper in 1788. It is found in Europe, the Near East, the western Sahara, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.

Calophasia platyptera
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Superfamily: Noctuoidea
Family: Noctuidae
Genus: Calophasia
Species:
C. platyptera
Binomial name
Calophasia platyptera
(Esper, [1788])
Synonyms
  • Phalaena (Noctua) platyptera Esper, 1788
  • Phalaena (Noctua) platyptera Esper, 1796
  • Phalaena (Noctua) canterius Villers, 1789
  • Noctua tenera Hübner, [1803]
  • Cleophana olbiena Duponchel, 1842
  • Calophasia platyptera var. subalbida Staudinger, 1901

Technical description and variation
For a key to the terms used, see Glossary of entomology terms.

C. platyptera Esp. (= canterius Vill., tenera Hbn.) (29 b). Forewing pale grey, with slight partial darker dusting; the veins finely dark; a thin black streak on submedian fold from base traversing a faintly paler claviform stigma; lines marked by oblique costal strigae and double curved marks on inner margin, the outer line there preceded by a curved dark grey cloud; terminal area with a double series of black streaks in the intervals interrupted by a pale submarginal line; fringe chequered fuscous and grey; hindwing dingy grey in female, whitish in male; the terminal half fuscous in female, reduced to a narrow grey border in male— ab. subalbida Stgr. (29 c), (queried by him as possibly only the summer brood) from Sicily and Algeria is much whiter, the dark markings of the forewing obsolescent; the hindwing nearly wholly white; — olbiena Dup. (29 c) has the dark markings of forewing intensified and blackish brown. Larva like that of lunula, whitish with yellow lines and transverse black blotches; but these are smaller and more numerous, and the yellow lines are more interrupted at the segmental incisions [1] The wingspan is about 30 mm.

Biology

Adults are on wing from early spring to November. There are multiple generations per year.

The larvae feed on the flowers and leaves of Antirrhinum and Linaria species.

References
  1. Warren. W. in Seitz, A. Ed., 1914 Die Großschmetterlinge der Erde, Verlag Alfred Kernen, Stuttgart Band 3: Abt. 1, Die Großschmetterlinge des palaearktischen Faunengebietes, Die palaearktischen eulenartigen Nachtfalter, 1914 This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  • Kimber, Ian. "73.060 BF2224 Antirrhinum Brocade Calophasia platyptera (Esper, 1788)". UKMoths. Retrieved 24 January 2021.
  • Fauna Europaea
  • Lepiforum e. V.


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