''Lithophane furcifera'', the conformist, 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

Noctuidae The Noctuidae, commonly known as owlet moths, cutworms or armyworms, are a family of moths. They are considered the most controversial family in the superfamily Noctuoidea because many of the clades are constantly changing, along with the other f ...

. The species was first described by

Johann Siegfried Hufnagel Johann Siegfried Hufnagel (17 October 1724, Uckerfelde, Falkenwalde, Prenzlau district, Brandenburg – 23 February 1795, Langenfeld, Sternberg district) was a German parson and entomologist (lepidopterist). Life Until the late 20th century nothing ...

in 1766. It is found from central Europe, east to the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal mediterranean sea of the Atlantic Ocean lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bounded by Bulgaria, Georgia, Roma ...

region, the

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

and western

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...

. In the mountains, it is found up to elevations of 1,800 meters.

Description in Seitz

''L. furcifera'' Hubn. (= ''bifurca'' Esp., ''conformis'' Hbn.) (30 i). Forewing purplish grey irrorated with olive; a thick black streak from base below cell, upcurved and forked, edged above by a white line; another from claviform to outer line; lines black, edged with pale grey, fairly distinct; claviform and orbicular pale blue grey edged with black; reniform inwardly bearing a fulvous crescent, its lower edge curved and black; a dark median shade and a narrow one before submarginal line; hindwing brownish fuscous, darker towards termen, sometimes showing a large cellspot and dark outer line; ab. ''rufescens'' Spul. has the forewing more or less flushed with reddish; nearly all of these, however, seem to be females, while the males remain dark purple grey without the red tinge; — ab. ''suffusa'' Tutt from the West of England is violet black; ab. ''variegata'' Spuler corresponding to the ''zinckenii'' form of ''

lamda LaMDA, which stands for Language Model for Dialogue Applications, is a family of conversational neural language models developed by Google. The first generation was announced during the 2021 Google I/O keynote, while the second generation was a ...

'' is much more variegated, the dark markings being relieved by silvery grey. — Larva red brown or earth brown marbled with black dots and streaks; the lines pale yellow; a dorsal series of diamond shaped marks and subdorsal series of oblique black streaks ; another form of the larva is said to be green marked with yellow. Warren. W. in Seitz, A. Ed., 1914 ''Die Großschmetterlinge der Erde'', Verlag Alfred Kernen, Stuttgart Band 3: Abt. 1, Die Großschmetterlinge des palaearktischen Faunengebietes, Die palaearktischen eulenartigen Nachtfalter, 1914 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 42–48 mm.

Biology

Adults are on wing from August to (after overwintering) June of the following year. There is one generation per year. The larvae feed on the leaves of '' Betula'', ''

Quercus An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably '' ...

'', ''

Alnus Alders are trees comprising the genus ''Alnus'' in the birch family Betulaceae. The genus comprises about 35 species of monoecious trees and shrubs, a few reaching a large size, distributed throughout the north temperate zone with a few spec ...

'', '' Salix'' and ''

Populus ''Populus'' is a genus of 25–30 species of deciduous flowering plants in the family Salicaceae, native to most of the Northern Hemisphere. English names variously applied to different species include poplar (), aspen, and cottonwood. The we ...

'' species. Larvae can be found from May to July.

References

External links

*
''Lepiforum e.V.''''Schmetterlinge-Deutschlands.de''
furcifera Moths described in 1766 Moths of Asia Moths of Europe Taxa named by Johann Siegfried Hufnagel {{Xyleninae-stub