''Shargacucullia lychnitis'', the striped lychnis is a moth 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 other f ...

. It is found throughout most parts of Europe the

Near East The ''Near East''; he, המזרח הקרוב; arc, ܕܢܚܐ ܩܪܒ; fa, خاور نزدیک, Xāvar-e nazdik; tr, Yakın Doğu is a geographical term which roughly encompasses a transcontinental region in Western Asia, that was once the hist ...

and Middle East (Lebanon, Israel, Afghanistan, Iran, Turkmenistan and Iraq).

Technical description and variation

''C. lychnitis'' Rmb. (27 g). Forewing narrow, pale ochreous with a more rufous tinge than in ''thapsiphaga'' 'Shargacucullia thapsiphaga'' (Treitschke, 1826) the costal streak darker; hindwing in both sexes whitish, the terminal shade narrower in the male. Larva greenish white with a pale yellow band on each segment; a dorsal row of curved black bars alternating with rows of 4 black spots; a row of black spots along the sides. The wingspan is 42–47 mm.

Biology

Adults are on wing from February to April in the eastern parts of its range. In Britain it is on wing from June to July. There is one generation per year. The larvae feed on the leaves and flowers of '' Verbascum'' species (including ''

Verbascum lychnitis ''Verbascum lychnitis'', the white mullein, is a flowering plant in the figwort family ( Scrophulariaceae) native to Asia and Europe. It has naturalized in parts of North America. The species was first formally named by Carl Linnaeus Car ...

'', ''

Verbascum nigrum ''Verbascum nigrum'', the black mullein or dark mullein, is a species of biennial or short-lived perennial herbaceous plant in the mullein genus '' Verbascum'', native to dry open sites in temperate Europe. It grows to . ''Verbascum nigrum'' fo ...

'' and '' Verbascum austriacum'').

Subspecies

*''Shargacucullia lychnitis lychnitis'' *''Shargacucullia lychnitis albicans'' (eastern part of the range)

Similar species

''Shargacucullia lychnitis'' is difficult to certainly distinguish from these congeners. See Townsend et al.Martin C. Townsend, Jon Clifton and Brian Goodey (2010)
''British and Irish Moths: An Illustrated Guide to Selected Difficult Species''
(covering the use of genitalia characters and other features) Butterfly Conservation. *'' Shargacucullia scrophulariae'' ( enis & Schiffermüller 1775) *''

Shargacucullia verbasci The mullein moth (''Cucullia verbasci'') is a noctuid moth with a Palearctic distribution. The species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his landmark 1758 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae''. Description The forewing is broad (for the g ...

'' (Linnaeus, 1758)

References

External links

Striped lychnis (''Cucullia lychnitis'') on UKmothsFauna Europaea''Cucullia lychnitis'' on Lepiforum.de
Cuculliinae Moths of Europe Moths of Asia Moths of the Middle East Taxa named by Jules Pierre Rambur {{Cuculliinae-stub