''Hypsopygia costalis'', the gold triangle or clover hay moth,
[ is a species of ]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 Pyralidae
The Pyralidae, commonly called pyralid moths, snout moths or grass moths, are a family of Lepidoptera in the ditrysian superfamily Pyraloidea. In many (particularly older) classifications, the grass moths (Crambidae) are included in the Pyrali ...
. It was described by Johan Christian Fabricius
Johan Christian Fabricius (7 January 1745 – 3 March 1808) was a Danish zoologist, specialising in "Insecta", which at that time included all arthropods: insects, arachnids, crustaceans and others. He was a student of Carl Linnaeus, and is cons ...
in 1775 and is found in Europe. 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 16–23 mm. The adult moths fly from May to July, depending on the location. The supposed species ''H. aurotaenialis'' is included here pending further study.caterpillar
Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths).
As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder Sym ...
s feed on dry vegetable matter. They have been found in haystack
Hay is grass, legumes, or other herbaceous plants that have been cut and dried to be stored for use as animal fodder, either for large grazing animals raised as livestock, such as cattle, horses, goats, and sheep, or for smaller domesticated ...
s or thatch
Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge (''Cladium mariscus''), rushes, heather, or palm branches, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. Since the bulk of ...
ing, as well as in chicken
The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster or cock is a term for an adult m ...
(''Gallus'') and magpie
Magpies are birds of the Corvidae family. Like other members of their family, they are widely considered to be intelligent creatures. The Eurasian magpie, for instance, is thought to rank among the world's most intelligent creatures, and is one ...
(''Pica'') nests. The caterpillar is injurious to clover hay, and to other hay when mixed with clover. Its depredations can be prevented by keeping the hay dry and well ventilated, as the insect preferably breeds in moist or matted material such as is to be found in the lower parts of haystacks, where affected hay becomes filled with webbings of the caterpillars and their excrement, rendering it unfit for feeding. A treatment is to burn the webbed material and to thoroughly clean the affected location.
Synonyms
Junior synonym
The Botanical and Zoological Codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently.
* In botanical nomenclature, a synonym is a scientific name that applies to a taxon that (now) goes by a different scientific name. For example, Linna ...
s of this species are:[See references in Savela (2009)]
* ''Hypsopygia aurotaenialis'' (Christoph, 1881) (but see above)
* ''Hypsopygia rubrocilialis'' (Staudinger, 1870)
* ''Phalaena costalis'' Fabricius, 1775
* ''Pyralis fimbrialis'' Denis & Schiffermüller, 1775
* ''Pyralis hyllalis'' Walker, 1859
* ''Tortrix purpurana'' Thunberg, 1784
* ''Pyralis costalis''
Footnotes
References
*
* Grabe, Albert (1942)
Eigenartige Geschmacksrichtungen bei Kleinschmetterlingsraupen
Strange tastes among micromoth caterpillars" ''Zeitschrift des Wiener Entomologen-Vereins'' 27: 105–109.
*
External links
Gold Triangle ''Hypsopygia costalis''
at ''UKMoths''
Moths described in 1775
Pyralini
Moths of Europe
Moths of Asia
Taxa named by Johan Christian Fabricius
{{Hypsopygia-stub