''Euplagia quadripunctaria'', the Jersey Tiger, or Spanish Flag, is a day-flying

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 species was first described by

Nikolaus Poda von Neuhaus Nikolaus Poda von Neuhaus (4 October 1723 – 29 April 1798) was an Austrian entomologist. In his branch of natural history, the short name Poda refers to him. Poda was born and died in Vienna. He was the author of ''Insecta Musei Graecens ...

in 1761. The adult

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 o ...

is , and they fly from July to September, depending on the location. Skinner, Bernard. (1984). '' The Colour Identification Guide to Moths of the British Isles (Macrolepidoptera)''. Viking (Penguin Books), London: They tend to fly close to '' Eupatorium cannabinum''. The larvae ( caterpillars) are polyphagous, feeding from September to May on nettles (''

Urtica ''Urtica'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Urticaceae. Many species have stinging hairs and may be called nettles or stinging nettles, although the latter name applies particularly to '' Urtica dioica''. ''Urtica'' species are food ...

'') and raspberries (''

Rubus ''Rubus'' is a large and diverse genus of flowering plants in the rose family, Rosaceae, subfamily Rosoideae, with over 1,350 species. Raspberries, blackberries, and dewberries are common, widely distributed members of the genus. Most of the ...

''),Kirby, W. F. (1903). ''The Butterflies and Moths of Europe''. Cassell & Co. Ltd., London: 432 pp. dandelion (''

Taraxacum ''Taraxacum'' () is a large genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae, which consists of species commonly known as dandelions. The scientific and hobby study of the genus is known as taraxacology. The genus is native to Eurasia and Nor ...

''), white deadnettle (''

Lamium ''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 successf ...

''), ground ivy (''

Glechoma ''Glechoma'' is a genus of flowering plants in the mint family, Lamiaceae, first described for modern science in 1753. It is distributed in northern Asia and Europe with a center of diversity in Asia, especially China. One species is naturalized ...

''), groundsel (''

Senecio ''Senecio'' is a genus of flowering plants in the daisy family (Asteraceae) that includes ragworts and groundsels. Variously circumscribed taxonomically, the genus ''Senecio'' is one of the largest genera of flowering plants. Description Mor ...

''), plantain (''

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 ...

''), borage (''

Borago ''Borago'', or borage, is a genus of five species of herbs native to the Mediterranean, with one species, ''Borago officinalis'', cultivated and naturalized throughout the world. Uses ''Borago officinalis'' is used medicinally, in companion p ...

''), lettuce (''

Lactuca ''Lactuca'', commonly known as lettuce, is a genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. The genus includes at least 50 species, distributed worldwide, but mainly in temperate Eurasia. Its best-known representative is the garden lettuce ...

''),South, R. (1920). ''The Moths of the British Isles''. (Series 1, Second edition), Frederick Warne & Co. Ltd., London: 359 pp. and hemp-agrimony ('' Eupratoria''). The insect overwinters as a small larva. Large groups of adults of subspecies ''E. q. rhodosensis'' can be found on occasion aestivating (sheltering from the summer heat) in

Petaloudes Petaloudes ( el, Πεταλούδες) is a former municipality on the island of Rhodes, in the Dodecanese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Rhodes, of which it is a municipal unit. Its population was 1 ...

, on

Rhodes Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the S ...

, in a place that has become known as the Valley of the Butterflies.Heath, J. & Maitland, Emmet A. (1985). ''The Moths and Butterflies of Great Britain and Ireland''. Vol.2, Harley Books Ltd., Colchester:

Distribution

''Euplagia quadripunctaria'' is widely distributed in Europe from

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

and Latvia in the north to the

Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western Europe, Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa ...

coast and islands in the south. It is also found in western

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...

, the southern

Urals 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 ...

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 re ...

and nearby islands, the Near East,

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia (country), Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range ...

, southern

Turkmenistan Turkmenistan ( or ; tk, Türkmenistan / Түркменистан, ) is a country located in Central Asia, bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the sout ...

, and

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

. Individuals are known to migrate northwards from their regular breeding grounds during the summer.

British Isles

Aside from being frequent in the

Channel Islands The Channel Islands ( nrf, Îles d'la Manche; french: îles Anglo-Normandes or ''îles de la Manche'') are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two Crown Dependencies: the Bailiwick of Jersey, ...

(whence its common name comes), this species was rarely seen in the British Isles in Victorian times. It was described by

William Forsell Kirby William Forsell Kirby (14 January 1844 – 20 November 1912) was an English entomologist and folklorist. Life He was born in Leicester. He was the eldest son of Samuel Kirby, who was a banker. He was educated privately, and became interested ...

as, "a great rarity in the South of England, except one locality in Devonshire." Since then however it has spread more widely in Devon and Cornwall, and has recently been seen more frequently in southern England, especially on the Isle of Wight, in northern Kent, and south London. They have been seen regularly and in numbers every year in London first discovered at Devonshire Road Nature Reserve in Forest Hill since 2004, so it is probable that they have established a breeding colony.Jersey tigers on UK Safari page
/ref> Mothrecording.org shows a string of connected sightings on the South Kent coast from Dover to Rye in the first two decades of the twenty-first century. These are disconnected from the block of sightings in South-West England and so probably came from the Continent directly.

Subspecies

*''Euplagia quadripunctaria quadripunctaria'' (Europe, Caucasus, Transcaucasus, northern Anatolia, northern Iran, southern Turkmenistan) *''Euplagia quadripunctaria fulgida'' (South Turkey, Syria, Lebanon) *''Euplagia quadripunctaria rhodosensis'' (Western Turkey and neighboring islands of Greece)

Conservation

This is the only lepidopteran which has been designated as a 'priority species' under Annex II of the

Habitats Directive The Habitats Directive (more formally known as Council Directive 92/43/EEC on the Conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora) is a directive adopted by the European Community in 1992 as a response to the Berne Convention. The E ...

in the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

, as of 1992, which means areas in which it occurs can be declared

Special Areas of Conservation A Special Area of Conservation (SAC) is defined in the European Union's Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC), also known as the ''Directive on the Conservation of Natural Habitats and of Wild Fauna and Flora''. They are to protect the 220 habitats and ap ...

References

External links