''Eilema caniola'', the hoary footman, 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'') ...

. The species was first described by

Jacob Hübner Jacob Hübner (20 June 1761 – 13 September 1826, in Augsburg) was a German entomologist. He was the author of ''Sammlung Europäischer Schmetterlinge'' (1796–1805), a founding work of entomology. Scientific career Hübner was the author of '' ...

in 1808.

Subspecies

*''Eilema caniola caniola'' *''Eilema caniola torstenii'' von Mentzer, 1980 (Spain)

Distribution and habitat

This species can be found in

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

, in western and southern Europe, in eastern Europe up to south-western

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

, in 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 ...

, in the eastern

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 ...

, and in the

Oriental realm The Indomalayan realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms. It extends across most of South and Southeast Asia and into the southern parts of East Asia. Also called the Oriental realm by biogeographers, Indomalaya spreads all over the Ind ...

. These

thermophilic A thermophile is an organism—a type of extremophile—that thrives at relatively high temperatures, between . Many thermophiles are archaea, though they can be bacteria or fungi. Thermophilic eubacteria are suggested to have been among the earl ...

moths usually occur in urban areas and as a caterpillar on old walls, roofs, shingle beaches, and rocky areas.

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 28–35 mm. It is almost the same in colouring as '' Eilema griseola'' and '' Eilema lurideola'' but the forewings are much smaller, the outer margin is oblique, only slightly excurved; the colour is much lighter, more yellowish grey, so that the pale yellow costal stripe is less prominent. Hindwings are very pale, scarcely darker at the costal margin, with the apex much more pointed than in the two species mentioned, with which it might be confounded. Eilema caniola caterpillar

It is at once distinguished from '' Eilema complanum'' by the underside of the forewing, on which the pale grey colour extends to the margin, the latter not being broadly yellow as in ''E. complanum''. - ab. ''vitellina'' Bdv. is a form with the forewing dusted with grey close to the distal margin and of a pale bright yellow ground colour in the male - ab. ''albeola'' Hbn. is considerably smaller, and, except for the bright yellow thorax, entirely white on the upperside; it occurs among ordinary specimens. Larvae are grey or reddish brown with dark dorsal line, red subdorsal lines edged with black and occasionally spotted with white or black.

Biology

These moths are nocturnal and rest at day on shady rocks. They fly in two or three generations from July to September depending on the location. They are attracted to light. The larvae mainly feed on

algae Algae (; singular alga ) is an informal term for a large and diverse group of photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms. It is a polyphyletic grouping that includes species from multiple distinct clades. Included organisms range from unicellular mic ...

, especially on green films of '' Pleurococcus'' and on a variety of

lichen A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship.Genista Genista is a genus of flowering plants in the legume family Fabaceae, native to open habitats such as moorland and pasture in Europe and western Asia. They include species commonly called broom, though the term may also refer to other genera, i ...

'' sp.), birdsfoot trefoil ('' Lotus'' sp.) and clover (''

Trifolium Clover or trefoil are common names for plants of the genus ''Trifolium'' (from Latin ''tres'' 'three' + ''folium'' 'leaf'), consisting of about 300 species of flowering plants in the legume or pea family Fabaceae originating in Europe. The genus h ...

'' sp.).''Memim Encyclopedia''
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Bibliography

*Erstbeschreibung: Hübner, J. 800-1838 Sammlung europäischer Schmetterlinge 3: pl. 1-83. *Guide des papillons nocturnes de France, Paris, Delachaux et Niestlé, 2007, 288 p. (), p. 93, n° 801. *Huemer, P. & W. Rabitsch (2002): 6.3.19 Schmetterlinge (Lepidoptera). - 354-362. In: Essl, F. & W. Rabitsch (2002): Neobiota in Österreich. - 432 S.; Umweltbundesamt, Wien. df-Version: http://homepage.univie.ac.at/wolfgang.rabitsch/DP089.pdf *L. N. Perette, F. Spill & M. Rauch, Les Papillons de la Réserve de la Biosphère des Vosges du Nord, Eguelshardt, Cicogna, 33 (N. sp.), octobre 2009, 324 p. (), p. 200 *Mentzer, E. (1980): ''Eilema torstenii'' n. sp. and ''E. iberica'' n. sp. from Spain, with notes on ''E. pseudocomplana'' (Daniel) (Lepidoptera: Arctiidae). ''Insect Systematics & Evolution'' 11 (1): 9-16 bstract auf ingentaconnect.com *Rezbanyai, L. (1981): Neue Erkenntnisse über die vor kurzem erkannte endemische Flechtenbär-Art von Mallorca, Eilema torstenii v. Mentzer 1980 (Lep.: Arctiidae). ''Entomologische Zeitschrift mit Insektenbörse'' 91 (12): 129-138. *Ebert, G. (1997): Die Gattung Eilema. In: Ebert, G.: Die Schmetterlinge Baden-Württembergs, Bd. 5. — Stuttgart (Verlag Eugen Ulmer), S. 234-267.

References

External links

"10493_''Eilema_caniola''_(Hübner,_[1808])_-_Weißgraues_Flechtenbärchen"
_''Lepiforum_e.V.''

_''Moths_and_Butterflies_of_Europe_and_North_Africa''. {{Taxonbar.html" ;"title="808]) - Weißgraues Flechtenbärchen"">"10493 ''Eilema caniola'' (Hübner,
_''Lepiforum_e.V.''

_''Moths_and_Butterflies_of_Europe_and_North_Africa''. {{Taxonbar">from=Q217705 Eilema.html" ;"title="808]) - Weißgraues Flechtenbärchen"
''Lepiforum e.V.''

''Moths and Butterflies of Europe and North Africa''. {{Taxonbar">from=Q217705 caniola Moths_of_Europe Moths_of_Asia.html" ;"title="Eilema">caniola Moths of Europe Moths of Asia">Eilema">caniola Moths of Europe Moths of Asia Moths described in 1808