''Elaphria venustula'' (rosy marbled) 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

Noctuidae The Noctuidae, commonly known as owlet moths, cutworms or armyworms, are a family of moths. They are considered the most controversial family in the superfamily Noctuoidea because many of the clades are constantly changing, along with the othe ...

. It is found in most of

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...

, except the north. In the east, the range extends through 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-Si ...

to the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...

Technical description and variation

''P. venustula'' Hbn. (= ''hybnerana'' F.) (45 i). Forewing white, the basal half tinged with dull pink; inner and outer lines double, grey, waved, their inner and outer arms respectively thicker and duller, those enclosing the median area darker and thinner below middle, each preceded by an irregular brownish shade; a broad oblique white streak from apex, interrupting a brown praesubmarginal shade, which isagain interrupted above inner margin; submarginal line undefined except at middle where it is preceded by a brown shade containing 2 or 3 black marks the terminal area beyond it and the fringe uninterruptedly brown; claviform stigma grey edged with white; orbicular absent, its place taken by a black semicircular blotch on median vein from which black scales run down through the brown shade; reniform obscurely marked, pale grey inwardly, with some black scales externally touching outer line; hindwing whitish, tinged with brownish grey towards termen; a grey cellspot and outer line. Larva purplish brown;the dorsal line indistinctly paler; 4th segment with a pale spot at sides; head brown. 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 ...

is 18–22 mm.

Biology

There are usually two generations per year with adults on wing from May to September. In the northern part of the range, there is only one generation, with adults on wing from June to July. The larvae mainly feed on the flowers of ''

Potentilla ''Potentilla'' is a genus containing over 300Guillén, A., et al. (2005)Reproductive biology of the Iberian species of ''Potentilla'' L. (Rosaceae).''Anales del Jardín Botánico de Madrid'' 1(62) 9–21. species of annual, biennial and peren ...

'', ''

Erica Erica or ERICA may refer to: * Erica (given name) * ''Erica'' (plant), a flowering plant genus * Erica (chatbot), a service of Bank of America * ''Erica'' (video game), a 2019 FMV video game * ''Erica'' (spider), a jumping spider genus * Eri ...

'' and ''

Calluna ''Calluna vulgaris'', common heather, ling, or simply heather, is the sole species in the genus ''Calluna'' in the flowering plant family Ericaceae. It is a low-growing evergreen shrub growing to tall, or rarely to and taller, and is found wi ...

'' species, but have also been recorded feeding on ''

Genista Genista is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family Fabaceae, native to open habitats such as moorland and pasture in Europe and western Asia. They include species commonly called broom, though the term may also refer to other genera, ...

'' and ''

Rubus ''Rubus'' is a large and diverse genus of flowering plants in the rose family, Rosaceae, subfamily Rosoideae, with over 1,350 species. Raspberries, blackberries, and dewberries are common, widely distributed members of the genus. Most of t ...

'' species. The species overwinters in the pupal stage.

References

External links

Lepiforum.deschmetterlinge-deutschlands.deVlindernet.nl
Moths described in 1790 Caradrinini Moths of Europe Moths of Asia Taxa named by Jacob Hübner {{Caradrinini-stub