A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus Betula, in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech-oak family Fagaceae. The genus Betula contains 30 to 60 known taxa of which 11 are on the IUCN 2011 Red List of Threatened Species. They are typically short-lived pioneer species and are widespread in the Northern Hemisphere, particularly in northern areas of temperate climates and in boreal climates. Birch wood, the wood of the birch, is used for a wide range of purposes.
The European roller is the only member of the roller family breeding in Europe. Its range extends into the Maghreb, West Asia and Central Asia. It winters in southern Africa, primarily in dry wooded savanna and bushy plains. It occurs in a wide variety of habitats, but avoids treeless plains. It usually nests in tree holes.
Lamium (dead-nettles) is a genus of about 30 species of flowering plants in the family Lamiaceae, of which it is the type genus. They are all herbaceous plants native to Europe, Asia, and northern Africa, but several have become very successful weeds of crop fields and are now widely naturalised across much of the temperate world.
Gagea is a large genus of spring flowers in the lily family. It is found primarily in Eurasia with a few species extending into North Africa and one species in North America.
The latticed heath is a moth of the family Geometridae, belonging to the subfamily Ennominae, placed in the tribe Macariini. The genus was erected by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae.
Ephedra is a genus of gymnosperm shrubs. The various species of Ephedra are widespread in many arid regions of the world, ranging across southwestern North America, southern Europe, northern Africa, southwest and central Asia, northern China and western South America. It is the only extant genus in its family, Ephedraceae, and order, Ephedrales, and one of the three living members of the division Gnetophyta alongside Gnetum and Welwitschia.
Leonurus (motherwort) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Lamiaceae. It is native to Europe and Asia, naturalized in New Zealand, Hawaii, New Caledonia, and much of North and South America.
Alopecosa is a spider genus in the family Lycosidae, with about 160 species. They have a largely Eurasian distribution, although some species are found in North Africa and North America.
Galium uliginosum or fen bedstraw is a plant species of the genus Galium. It is widespread across most of Europe as well as Morocco, Western Siberia, Turkey, Kazakhstan and Xinjiang. It is reportedly naturalized in New Zealand, Greenland and the Crozet Islands.
Siona lineata, the black-veined moth, is a moth of the family Geometridae. The species was first described by Giovanni Antonio Scopoli in his 1763 Entomologia Carniolica.
Phragmatobia fuliginosa, the ruby tiger, is a moth of the family Erebidae.
Chelis maculosaSpeckled 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 Chinese Xinjiang.
Hemaris croatica is a moth of the family Sphingidae. It was described by Eugenius Johann Christoph Esper in 1800.
Heliothis ononis, the flax bollworm, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Michael Denis and Ignaz Schiffermüller in 1775. It is found in China, Kazakhstan, central Asia, northern Mongolia (Khangai), the Russian Far East, the Korean Peninsula, southern European part of Russia, southern and central Europe, southern and eastern Siberia and Turkey. In North America it is found from south-central Manitoba west to British Columbia, north to the Northwest Territories and Yukon and Alaska and south to Colorado.
Rethera komarovi, the madder hawkmoth, is a moth of the family Sphingidae. The species was first described by Hugo Christoph in 1885. It is found in south-western Europe, Asia Minor, Afghanistan, Turkestan, Iran and Iraq.
The Museum Witt Munich (MWM) is a department of the Bavarian State Collection of Zoology. The former independent museum was located in Munich, Germany, and had the world's leading collection of certain moths. The museum was closed in 2023. The entire collection was handed over to the Bavarian State Collection.
Dyspessa ulula, the garlic mottled, is a species of moth of the family Cossidae. It is found from central and southern Europe through Russia to central Asia. It is also found in Syria, Iran, Iraq and parts of North Africa.
Lacydes spectabilis is a moth of the family Erebidae. It was described by August Michael Tauscher in 1806. It is found in south-eastern Ukraine, eastern European Russia, western Siberia, Kazakhstan, Central Asia, Armenia, eastern Turkey, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, China (Xinjiang) and southern Mongolia.
Gnaphosa is a genus of ground spiders that was first described by Pierre André Latreille in 1804. They all have a serrated keel on the retromargin of each chelicera.
Galium rubioides, the European bedstraw, is a species of plants in the family Rubiaceae, native to Europe and Asia. Natural distribution is from Austria and Croatia east to Russia and Turkey, plus the Caucasus, Western Siberia, Kazakhstan, northern China and the Amur region of Russia. The species is also reportedly naturalized in Northampton County, Pennsylvania.
