''Cymbalophora rivularis'' is a

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 ...

of the family Erebidae first described by

Édouard Ménétries Édouard Ménétries ( Paris, France, 2 October 1802 – St. Petersburg, Imperial Russia, 10 April 1861) was a French entomologist, zoologist, and herpetologist. He is best known as the founder of the Russian Entomological Society. Ménétries ...

in 1832. It is found in central

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

, the

Balkan Peninsula The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the whol ...

, western

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkm ...

Dagestan Dagestan ( ; rus, Дагеста́н, , dəɡʲɪˈstan, links=yes), officially the Republic of Dagestan (russian: Респу́блика Дагеста́н, Respúblika Dagestán, links=no), is a republic of Russia situated in the North ...

Armenia Armenia (), , group=pron officially the Republic of Armenia,, is a landlocked country in the Armenian Highlands of Western Asia.The UNbr>classification of world regions places Armenia in Western Asia; the CIA World Factbook , , and ...

and western

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...

. These species can be easily distinguished as ''C. rivularis'' because they are smaller and have a yellowish abdomen, and exhibits three black spots on the inferior margin of their forewings. Furthermore, the female is

brachypterous Brachyptery is an anatomical condition in which an animal has very reduced wings. Such animals or their wings may be described as "brachypterous". Another descriptor for very small wings is microptery. Brachypterous wings generally are not functi ...

, whilst the female of the congeneric species, ''

Cymbalophora pudica ''Cymbalophora pudica'', the discrete chaperon, is a moth of the family Erebidae. The species was first described by Eugenius Johann Christoph Esper in 1784. Varieties *''Cymbalophora pudica'' ab. ''cohaerens'' Schultz, 1905 *''Cymbalophora pud ...

'', is fully winged. 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 the male is 20–30 mm. The larvae feed on ''

Taraxacum ''Taraxacum'' () is a large genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae, which consists of species commonly known as dandelions. The scientific and hobby study of the genus is known as taraxacology. The genus is native to Eurasia and Nor ...

'' and ''

Plantago ''Plantago'' is a genus of about 200 species of flowering plants in the family Plantaginaceae, commonly called plantains or fleaworts. The common name plantain is shared with the unrelated cooking plantain. Most are herbaceous plants, though a ...

'' species."''Cymbalophora rivularis'' (Ménétriés, 1832)"
''Moths and Butterflies of Europe and North Africa''.

Similar species

* ''

Chelis maculosa ''Chelis maculosa'' Speckled Pellicle is a tiger moth of the family Erebidae. It is found in Southern and Central Europe up to Hungary, in eastern direction it occurs through Ukraine, Southern Russia, Kazakhstan to north-western regions of ...

'' * ''

Primary host-plants

References

Callimorphina Moths of Europe Moths of Asia Moths described in 1832 Taxa named by Édouard Ménétries {{Callimorphina-stub