''Diaphora mendica'', the muslin moth, 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 w ...

of the family

Erebidae The Erebidae are a family of moths in the superfamily Noctuoidea. The family is among the largest families of moths by species count and contains a wide variety of well-known macromoth groups. The family includes the underwings ('' Catocala'') ...

. It is found in the

Palearctic realm 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-Sibe ...

east to

Lake Baikal Lake Baikal (, russian: Oзеро Байкал, Ozero Baykal ); mn, Байгал нуур, Baigal nuur) is a rift lake in Russia. It is situated in southern Siberia, between the federal subjects of Irkutsk Oblast to the northwest and the Repu ...

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 of ...

is 28–38 mm. There is clear

sexual dimorphism Sexual dimorphism is the condition where the sexes of the same animal and/or plant species exhibit different morphological characteristics, particularly characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most ani ...

in the

imago In biology, the imago (Latin for "image") is the last stage an insect attains during its metamorphosis, its process of growth and development; it is also called the imaginal stage, the stage in which the insect attains maturity. It follows the f ...

, with the male having a brownish gray colour and a forewing length of 14–17 mm, and the female being white and having a forewing length of 17–19 mm. Male sooty brown-grey, usually with a black dot at the apex of the cell; sometimes without and in other cases with a few accessory dots. The female thinly scaled, milky white, with the abdomen of the same colour; wings very sparsely dotted, ab. ''rustica'' Hbn. are males with the ground colour milky white like that of the females. ab. ''binaghii'' Tur. are transitional specimens from the normal brown males of ''mendica'' to ''rustica''. — Schultz names female specimens with only one black dot ab. ''depuncta''. By pairing the white males of ''rustica'' with normal females of ''mendica'' (which is an interbreeding of races and not hybridisation, as is usually reported) peculiar sand-coloured males result, which are called ''standfussi''. If the female of ''standfussi'' is recrossed with the male of ''rustica'' a white and much dotted moth results, the form ''inversa'' Car.. But we have true hybridisation if the male of ''rustica'' is crossed with another species of the genus, e.g., with '' Diaphora sordida'' Hbn.; from this cross-breeding a real hybrid is obtained, viz., f. hybr. ''viertli'' Car. This may again be paired with other forms, e.g., ''viertli'' with f. ''inversa'' Car., by which cross ''hilaris'' Car. is obtained, or with ''mendica'', whence ''beata'' Car. results, etc.Seitz, A. Ed. Die Großschmetterlinge der Erde, Verlag Alfred Kernen, Stuttgart Band 2: Abt. 1, Die Großschmetterlinge des palaearktischen Faunengebietes, Die palaearktischen Spinner und Schwärmer, 1912–1913 The female resembles ''

Spilosoma lubricipeda ''Spilosoma lubricipeda'', the white ermine, is a moth of the family Erebidae. It is found throughout the temperate belt of Eurasia from Europe through Kazakhstan and southern Siberia to Amur Region, China, Korea and Japan. In China several sibli ...

'', but that species has longer and smaller wings and a yellow and black back.

Biology

The moth flies April to July depending on the location. Egg light yellow. Larva grey-brown, greenish laterally, with reddish brown warts and foxy red hairs; on the back a median line, which is sometimes indistinct. Pupa stumpy, glossy red brown. The larvae feed on

birch 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 ...

willow Willows, also called sallows and osiers, from the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 400 speciesMabberley, D.J. 1997. The Plant Book, Cambridge University Press #2: Cambridge. of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist s ...

, ''

Rumex The docks and sorrels, genus ''Rumex'', are a genus of about 200 species of annual, biennial, and perennial herbs in the buckwheat family, Polygonaceae. Members of this genus are very common perennial herbs with a native almost worldwide distribu ...

'', '' Lamium'' and ''

Plantago ''Plantago'' is a genus of about 200 species of flowering plants in the family Plantaginaceae, commonly called plantains or fleaworts. The common name plantain is shared with the unrelated cooking plantain. Most are herbaceous plants, though a ...

''. Diaphora mendica caterpillar - Kulna.jpg, Caterpillar Britishentomologyvolume5Plate213.jpg, Illustration from John Curtis's ''

British Entomology ''British Entomology'' is a classic work of entomology by John Curtis, FLS. It is subtitled ''Being Illustrations and Descriptions of the Genera of Insects found in Great Britain and Ireland: Containing Coloured Figures from Nature of the Most ...

'' Volume 5

References

External links

Muslin moth on ''UKMoths''''Fauna Europaea''
* Taxonomy
''Lepiforum e.V.''''De Vlinderstichting''
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1543716 Spilosomina Moths described in 1759 Moths of Asia Moths of Europe Taxa named by Carl Alexander Clerck Palearctic Lepidoptera