Green longhorn

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Green longhorn
Adela reaumurella-08 (xndr).jpg
Male
Adela.reaumurella.female.jpg
Female
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Adelidae
Genus: Adela
Species:
A. reaumurella
Binomial name
Adela reaumurella
Synonyms
  • Phalaena reaumurellaLinnaeus, 1758
  • Phalaena viridellaScopoli, 1763

The green longhorn (Adela reaumurella) is a lepidopteran from the moth family Adelidae, the fairy longhorn moths. [1]

Contents

Distribution

Adela reaumurella has a palearctic distribution. It occurs in southern North Europe, Western Europe through Central Europe to Eastern Europe. Across the temperate Palearctic the range extends to Japan. In the South, the species occurs to Sicily and Anatolia. It is missing on the Iberian Peninsula. [2]

Habitat

These moths inhabit forests and open meadows. [3]

Description

The wingspan of Adela reaumurella ranges from 14 to 18 millimeter. [4] Wings have an ovoid-elongated shape with rounded apex. The upper wings of both sexes are bronzy or metallic greenish, close along the body. The hind wings are dark brown with a bronze-violet shine. The males have very long thread-shaped whitish antennas, forward-facing and reaching about four times the length of the body. They have very developed eyes and rough black hair on their heads and thorax. The females have relatively short antennas with shorter and lighter hair on their heads. [4] [5] They have also a few orange hairs between the eyes. [6] [7] [8]

Biology

The flight time of these day-active moths ranges from April to June. The males are often seen in the spring sunshine forming swarms of up to 30 specimens. [4] [9] If a female flies through the swarm, it is caught by a male and the mating in flight takes place. The caterpillars live among fallen leaves from birch and oak and feed on leaves remains, often Quercus species, forming mines on them. They protect themselves for the summer and winter in an oblong, brown bag-like structure of small pieces of fallen leaves. [4] In this bag also the pupation takes place the following spring. [5]

Etymology

The name honours the French naturalist René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur.

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<i>Saturnia pavonia</i> Species of moth

Saturnia pavonia, the small emperor moth, is a moth of the family Saturniidae. It was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae. Sometimes, the incorrect genus name Pavonia is still used for this species. This moth occurs throughout the Palearctic region and is the only member of its family to be found in the British Isles, where it is usually called simply the emperor moth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Common emerald</span> Species of moth

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bordered white</span> Species of moth

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yellow-tail</span> Species of moth

The yellow-tail, goldtail moth or swan moth is a moth of the family Erebidae. The species was first described by Johann Kaspar Füssli in 1775, and has commonly been placed within the related genus Euproctis. It is distributed throughout Europe to the Urals, then east across the Palearctic to Siberia and south to India and Sri Lanka.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Common footman</span> Species of moth

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miller (moth)</span> Species of moth

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<i>Pterophorus pentadactyla</i> Species of moth

Pterophorus pentadactyla, commonly known as the white plume moth, is a moth in the family Pterophoridae. It is found in the West Palearctic including North Africa and Europe. The wingspan is 26–34 mm (1.0–1.3 in). It is uniformly white, with the hind wing pair divided in three feathery plumes and the front pair in another two. The moths fly from June to August. The larvae feed on bindweed.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adelidae</span> Family of moths

The Adelidae or fairy longhorn moths are a family of monotrysian moths in the lepidopteran infraorder Heteroneura. The family was first described by Charles Théophile Bruand d'Uzelle in 1851. Most species have at least partially metallic, patterned coloration and are diurnal, sometimes swarming around the tips of branches with an undulating flight. Others are crepuscular and have a drab coloration. Fairy longhorn moths have a wingspan of 4–28 millimeters, and males often have especially long antennae, 1–3 times as long as the forewing.

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<i>Adela croesella</i> Species of moth

Adela croesella is a moth of the family Adelidae. It is found in most of Europe.

Stigmella sorbi is a moth of the family Nepticulidae, described by Henry Tibbats Stainton in 1861. It is found in most of Europe, east to the eastern part of the Palearctic realm.

<i>Adela australis</i> Species of moth

Adela australis is a moth of the family Adelidae or fairy longhorn moths.

<i>Nematopogon pilella</i> Species of moth

Nematopogon pilella is a moth of the Adelidae family. It is found in almost all of Europe, except Portugal, Spain and Slovenia.

<i>Adela cuprella</i> Species of moth

Adela cuprella is a moth of the family Adelidae and are found in most of Europe. It was first described by Michael Denis & Ignaz Schiffermüller in 1775 and the type locality is from Austria. They can be found flying around sallows (Salix) species during the day in April and May.

<i>Adela trigrapha</i> Species of moth

Adela trigrapha is a moth of the family Adelidae or fairy longhorn moths. It was described by Zeller in 1876 and is found in western North America, from Vancouver Island to California.

Adela praepilosa is a moth belonging to the family Adelidae, the fairy longhorn moths. Its Japanese name is kebuka higenaga (ケブカヒゲナガ).

References

  1. Funet - Markku Savela's Lepidoptera and some other life forms
  2. Fauna Europaea
  3. Michael Chinery, Farfalle d'Italia e d'Europa (Butterflies and Day Flying Moths of Britain and Europe), Novara, Istituto Geografico De Agostini, 1990 [1989], p. 323, ISBN   88-402-0802-X.
  4. 1 2 3 4 UK Moths
  5. 1 2 Peter Holden, Geoffrey Abbott RSPB Handbook of Garden Wildlife
  6. Garden safari
  7. Meyrick, E., 1895 A Handbook of British Lepidoptera MacMillan, London pdf PD-icon.svg This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain . Keys and description
  8. Zagulajev, A.K., 1987 Adelidae ; in G.S. Medvedev (ed.): Keys to the insects of the europaean part of the USSR, Vol.IV: Lepidoptera, part 1 (english translation), Oxonian Press Pvt.Ltd., New Dehli, 1987
  9. Michael Chinery, Insectes de France et d'Europe occidentale, Paris, Flammarion, août 2012, 320 p. ( ISBN   978-2-0812-8823-2), p. 124-125 (in French)