''Autographa pulchrina'' (beautiful golden Y) is a

moth Moths are a group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not Butterfly, butterflies. They were previously classified as suborder Heterocera, but the group is Paraphyly, paraphyletic with respect to butterflies (s ...

of the family

Noctuoidea Noctuoidea is the superfamily of noctuid (Latin "night owl") or "owlet" moths, and has more than 70,000 described species, the largest number of any Lepidopteran superfamily. Its classification has not yet reached a satisfactory or stable stat ...

. It is found in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

, east to the

Urals The Ural Mountains ( ),; , ; , or simply the Urals, are a mountain range in Eurasia that runs north–south mostly through Russia, from the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the river Ural (river), Ural and northwestern Kazakhstan.

and the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region spanning Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is situated between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, comprising parts of Southern Russia, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. The Caucasus Mountains, i ...

, as well as in the

Khentii Mountains The Khentii Mountains () are a mountain range in the Töv and Khentii Provinces in northeastern Mongolia. History The mountains were called the Langjuxu Mountains (狼居胥山) in ancient China. In 119 BC, the Han dynasty army fought the ...

(Mongolia) and East

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

Description

The

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the opposite wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingsp ...

is 35–40 mm. The length of the forewings is 17–20 mm. Forewing fuscous purplish, with the dark suffusion stronger than in ''

iota Iota (; uppercase Ι, lowercase ι; ) is the ninth letter of the Greek alphabet. It was derived from the Phoenician letter Yodh. Letters that arose from this letter include the Latin I and J, the Cyrillic І (І, і), Yi (Ї, ї), and J ...

''; inner and outer lines more or less marked with pale yellowish, edged with dark brown;the inner preceded by a brown fascia; median area below middle ferruginous brown, with an orange suffusion beneath externally; reniform stigma partly outlined with pale golden; the two golden spots as in iota; submarginal line suffusedly edged with olive brown, except above anal angle; hindwing as in ''iota''; in the ab. ''percontatrix'' Auriv. the two golden spots are confluent; the form ''gammoides'' Speyer, from the Baltic provinces and North and Central Germany, is darker, with the purplish tint of forewings stronger and the metallic spots united; — ''buraetica'' Stgr. is also a darker, brownish grey form, with stronger golden tinge and conjoined spots, from the Kentei Mts. and E.

ow species ''Autographa buraetica'' ">Autographa_buraetica.html" ;"title="ow species ''Autographa buraetica">ow species ''Autographa buraetica'' ; in the ab. ''pallida'' ab. nov. [Warren] from the Engadin, Engadine the ground colour is whitish. The caterpillars are green and have yellowish white, slightly wavy lateral stripes. The head is green and blackish bordered. The pupa is black.

Biology

The moth flies in one or two generations in from May to June and August to September in case of a second generation. The larvae feed on low plants such as

nettle Nettle refers to plants with stinging hairs, particularly those of the genus '' Urtica''. It can also refer to plants which resemble ''Urtica'' species in appearance but do not have stinging hairs. Plants called "nettle" include: * ball nettle ...

honeysuckle Honeysuckles are arching shrubs or Vine#Twining vines, twining vines in the genus ''Lonicera'' () of the family Caprifoliaceae. The genus includes 158 species native to northern latitudes in North America, Eurasia, and North Africa. Widely kno ...

, ''

Stachys sylvatica ''Stachys sylvatica'', commonly known as hedge woundwort, whitespot, or sometimes as hedge nettle, is a perennial herbaceous plant growing to tall in woodland and unmanaged grassland. In temperate zones of the northern hemisphere it flowers in ...

'' and ''

Jacobaea vulgaris ''Jacobaea vulgaris'', syn. ''Senecio jacobaea'', is a very common wild flower in the family Asteraceae that is native to northern Eurasia, usually in dry, open places, and has also been widely distributed as a weed elsewhere. Common names inc ...

''.

Notes

#''The flight season refers to

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

and

The Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

. This may vary in other parts of the range.''

References

External links

Beautiful golden Y at UKmoths
Taxonomy
Fauna EuropaeaLepiforum.deVlindernet.nl waarneming.nl
Plusiini Moths of Europe Moths of Asia Taxa named by Adrian Hardy Haworth Moths described in 1809 {{Plusiinae-stub