''Hypena opulenta'' 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 ...

in 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'') ...

(formerly in the family Noctuidae). The species was first described by

Hugo Theodor Christoph Hugo Theodor Christoph (16 April 1831 – 5 November 1894) was a German and Russian entomologist. Born in Herrnhut in Saxony, Hugo Theodor Christoph moved to Russia in 1858. He became a member of the Russian Entomological Society in 1861. From 18 ...

in 1877. Its reported native range expands from

Eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the Europe, European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russ ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

and

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 ...

, south to

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

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 ...

, and

Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...

. In 2013, the moth larva was approved for release in North America to act as a

biocontrol agent Biological control or biocontrol is a method of controlling pests, such as insects, mites, weeds, and plant diseases, using other organisms. It relies on predation, parasitism, herbivory, or other natural mechanisms, but typically also invo ...

for invasive swallow-wort plants, '' Vincetoxicum rossicum'' and ''

Vincetoxicum nigrum ''Vincetoxicum nigrum'', a species in the family Apocynaceae, also known as black swallow-wort, Louise's swallow-wort, or black dog-strangling vine, is a species of plant that is native to Europe and is found primarily in Italy, France, Portugal, ...

''.

Life cycle

''Hypena opulenta''

overwinters Overwintering is the process by which some organisms pass through or wait out the winter season, or pass through that period of the year when "winter" conditions (cold or sub-zero temperatures, ice, snow, limited food supplies) make normal activi ...

pupa A pupa ( la, pupa, "doll"; plural: ''pupae'') is the life stage of some insects undergoing transformation between immature and mature stages. Insects that go through a pupal stage are holometabolous: they go through four distinct stages in their ...

. Moths emerge in late spring. The eggs are deposited on the under and upper sides of host plants along main veins. Larvae go through five

instars An instar (, from the Latin '' īnstar'', "form", "likeness") is a developmental stage of arthropods, such as insects, between each moult (''ecdysis''), until sexual maturity is reached. Arthropods must shed the exoskeleton in order to grow or ass ...

and take four to six weeks to develop. They have been reported to feed on '' Vincetoxicum rossicum'' and '' Vincetoxicum scandens'' in the wild, and to also be able to develop on ''

'' and ''

Vincetoxicum hirundinaria ''Vincetoxicum hirundinaria'', commonly named white swallow-wort, is a long-lived herbaceous perennial of the genus ''Vincetoxicum'' in the family Apocynaceae. Etymology The generic name ''Vincetoxicum'', in Latin meaning ‘conqueror of poison� ...

'' in the laboratory. Pupation occurs either on the host plant within leaves tied with silk or on the ground within the leaf litter. ''Hypena opulenta'' has a facultative diapause and is believed to usually undergo two generations per year. Overwintering is triggered by short

photoperiod Photoperiodism is the physiological reaction of organisms to the length of night or a dark period. It occurs in plants and animals. Plant photoperiodism can also be defined as the developmental responses of plants to the relative lengths of light a ...

References

*Hazlehurst, A. F., Weed, A. S., Tewksbury, L. & Casagrande, R. A. (2012). "Host specificity of ''Hypena opulenta'': a potential biological control agent of ''Vincetoxicum'' in North America". ''Environmental Entomology''. 41: 841–848. Moths described in 1877 opulenta {{Hypeninae-stub