''Panemeria tenebrata'', the small yellow underwing, 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 ...

. The species was first described by

Giovanni Antonio Scopoli Giovanni Antonio Scopoli (sometimes Latinized as Johannes Antonius Scopolius) (3 June 1723 – 8 May 1788) was an Italian physician and naturalist. His biographer Otto Guglia named him the "first anational European" and the "Linnaeus of the Au ...

in his 1763 ''

Entomologia Carniolica ' is a taxonomic work by Giovanni Antonio Scopoli, published in Vienna in 1763. As well as describing hundreds of new species, ' contained observations on the species' biology, including the first published account of queen bees mating outside the ...

''. It is found in Europe but is missing in northern Scandinavia, in Portugal, in central and southern Spain, as well as on most Mediterranean islands, except

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

. In the east, the range extends to the

Ural mountains The Ural Mountains ( ; rus, Ура́льские го́ры, r=Uralskiye gory, p=ʊˈralʲskʲɪjə ˈɡorɨ; ba, Урал тауҙары) or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western ...

, but the east distribution limits are still insufficiently known. Occurrence in

Asia Minor Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The ...

is uncertain, but it is known from

Jordan Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Ri ...

and

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

Technical description and variation

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 19–22 mm. Forewing dark fuscous, varied with red brown and with a sprinkling of pale grey scales; inner and outer lines indistinctly darker; a dentate, cloudy dark fuscous median shade; a darker shade precedes and defines the subterminal hue; hindwing blackish, with a deep yellow outer fascia not reaching inner margin; in the ab. ''obscura'' Spul. the black borders of the hindwing are wider and the white band smaller.

Biology

The moth flies from April to July depending on the location. It prefers sunny weather. Larva light green; dorsal line deep green; subdorsal lines whitish, edged with darker; spiracular line more yellowish, edged with dark green above: head pale green. The larvae feed on the flowers and seeds of ''

Cerastium ''Cerastium'' is a genus of annual, winter annual, or perennial plants belonging to the family Caryophyllaceae. They are commonly called mouse-ear chickweed. Species are found nearly worldwide but the greatest concentration is in the northern tem ...

'' and ''

Stellaria ''Stellaria'' is a genus of about 190 species of flowering plants in the family Caryophyllaceae, with a cosmopolitan distribution. Common names include starwort, stitchwort and chickweed. Description ''Stellaria'' species are relatively sm ...

''.

References

External links

* * Taxonomy.
''Fauna Europaea''''Lepiforum e. V.''

''De Vlinderstichting''
Hadeninae Moths described in 1763 Moths of Europe Taxa named by Giovanni Antonio Scopoli {{Hadeninae-stub