''Colobochyla salicalis'', the European lesser belle or lesser belle, is a species of

moth Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of w ...

of the family

Erebidae The Erebidae are a family of moths in the superfamily Noctuoidea. The family is among the largest families of moths by species count and contains a wide variety of well-known macromoth groups. The family includes the underwings ('' Catocala'') ...

. It is found over almost all of the

Palearctic The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Sibe ...

Technical description and variation

''C. salicalis'' Schiff. (71 b). Forewing pale fuscous finely dusted with whitish, so as to appear grey; lines ferruginous edged with pale ochreous; the inner straight, the outer and subterminal somewhat curved inwards, the latter running into apex; hindwing pale fuscous, darker terminally, showing a faint subterminal line.; the forms occurring in Amurland and Japanare greyer or paler that in Japan, —ab. ''cinerea'' Btlr., — greyer than the type; while the Amurland form — ab. ''laetalis'' Stgr. — is not only much paler but slightly smaller. Larva green, with the segmental incisions yellowish; the head also green; spiracles black. 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 The

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

is 26–30 mm.

Biology

Adults are on wing from May to July. There is one generation per year. The larvae feed on the young shoots and leaves of '' Populus tremula''.

References

External links

Lesser Belle on UKmothsFauna EuropaeaLepiforum.de
Boletobiinae Moths of Japan Moths of Europe Moths of Asia Taxa named by Michael Denis Taxa named by Ignaz Schiffermüller {{Boletobiinae-stub