''Micropterix calthella'', the marsh marigold 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 ...

belonging to the family

Micropterigidae Micropterigoidea is the superfamily of "mandibulate archaic moths", all placed in the single family Micropterigidae, containing currently about twenty living genera. They are considered the most primitive extant lineage of lepidoptera (Kristense ...

. It is found in damp habitats throughout

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

(except for the far south) and is also distributed eastwards to central

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 ...

. It was first described by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

in 1761 as ''

Phalaena ''Phalaena'' is an obsolete genus of Lepidoptera used by Carl Linnaeus to house most moths. ''Phalaena'' was one of three genera used by Linnaeus to cover all Lepidoptera. ''Papilio'' included all butterflies at that time, ''Sphinx'' included al ...

calthella''.

Description

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 ...

e are brown with dark oculi and paler abdominal segments. Adults are small, with a

forewing Insect wings are adult outgrowths of the insect exoskeleton that enable insects to fly. They are found on the second and third thoracic segments (the mesothorax and metathorax), and the two pairs are often referred to as the forewings and hindwin ...

length of up to and a

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 ...

of . The species is more plainly marked than many other European species of ''Micropterix'', and has dark bronze-coloured forewings with distinctive purple bases. The hindwings are rather dark bronzy-grey. The head is deep ferruginous-yellow.

Behaviour

Eggs are laid amongst vegetation on the soil surface. They are translucent white turning grey, prior to hatching. The larvae feed on tender, young growth of herbacaeous plants and pupate in a tough, silken cocoon. Like other members of the family, ''Micropterix calthella'' has functional

jaw The jaw is any opposable articulated structure at the entrance of the mouth, typically used for grasping and manipulating food. The term ''jaws'' is also broadly applied to the whole of the structures constituting the vault of the mouth and serv ...

s in its imaginal stage. As adult, it feeds on

pollen Pollen is a powdery substance produced by seed plants. It consists of pollen grains (highly reduced microgametophytes), which produce male gametes (sperm cells). Pollen grains have a hard coat made of sporopollenin that protects the gametophyt ...

grains from a wide variety of plants such as maple ('' Acer'' species), bugle (''

Ajuga ''Ajuga'' , also known as bugleweed,Bailey, L.H.; Bailey, E.Z.; the staff of the Liberty Hyde Bailey Hortorium. 1976. ''Hortus third: A concise dictionary of plants cultivated in the United States and Canada''. Macmillan, New York. ground pine, c ...

'' species), ''

Caltha ''Caltha'' is a genus of rhizomatous perennial flowering plants in the family Ranunculaceae ("buttercup family"), to which ten species have been assigned. They occur in moist environments in temperate and cold regions of both the Northern and S ...

'', ''

Cardamine ''Cardamine'' is a large genus of flowering plants in the mustard family, Brassicaceae, known as bittercresses and toothworts. It contains more than 200 species of annuals and perennials. Species in this genus can be found worldwide, except the ...

'', sedge (''

Carex ''Carex'' is a vast genus of more than 2,000 species of grass-like plants in the family Cyperaceae, commonly known as sedges (or seg, in older books). Other members of the family Cyperaceae are also called sedges, however those of genus ''Carex'' ...

'' species), hawthorn (''

Crataegus ''Crataegus'' (), commonly called hawthorn, quickthorn, thornapple, Voss, E. G. 1985. ''Michigan Flora: A guide to the identification and occurrence of the native and naturalized seed-plants of the state. Part II: Dicots (Saururaceae–Cornacea ...

'' species), mercuries ('' Mercurialis'' species) and buttercup (''

Ranunculus ''Ranunculus'' is a large genus of about almost 1700 to more than 1800 species of flowering plants in the family Ranunculaceae. Members of the genus are known as buttercups, spearworts and water crowfoots. The genus is distributed in Europe ...

'' species). The adults possess sociable behavior. Micropterix calthella - Lissan House.jpg, Lissan House, Cookstown, Northern Ireland; feeding on pollen of ''

Ranunculus repens ''Ranunculus repens'', the creeping buttercup, is a flowering plant in the buttercup family Ranunculaceae, native to Europe, Asia and northwestern Africa. Habitat It is a very common weed of agricultural land and gardens, spreading quickly by it ...

''. Britishentomologyvolume6Plate751.jpg, Illustration from John Curtis's ''British Entomology'' Volume 6

Taxonomy

The moth was first named by Carl Linnaeus in 1761 as ''Phalaena calthella'', from a

specimen Specimen may refer to: Science and technology * Sample (material), a limited quantity of something which is intended to be similar to and represent a larger amount * Biological specimen or biospecimen, an organic specimen held by a biorepository ...

found in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

. The generic name ''Phalaena'' is from the

Greek language Greek ( el, label=Modern Greek, Ελληνικά, Elliniká, ; grc, Ἑλληνική, Hellēnikḗ) is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece, Cyprus, southern Italy (Calabria and Salento), southern Al ...

and has a number of possible meanings. It may mean the rest of the moths; or possibly a devouring monster or whale, which may be derived from the destructive properties of

clothes moth Clothes moth or clothing moth is the common name for several species of moth considered to be pests, whose larvae eat animal fibres (hairs), including clothing and other fabrics. These include: * ''Tineola bisselliella'', the common clothes moth ...

s; or possibly from ''

phallus A phallus is a penis (especially when erect), an object that resembles a penis, or a mimetic image of an erect penis. In art history a figure with an erect penis is described as ithyphallic. Any object that symbolically—or, more precisel ...

'' an association by the Greeks of lepidoptera and

semen Semen, also known as seminal fluid, is an organic bodily fluid created to contain spermatozoa. It is secreted by the gonads (sexual glands) and other sexual organs of male or hermaphroditic animals and can fertilize the female ovum. Semen i ...

, which was suppose to attract moths; or ''paros'' i.e. a light and the attraction of moths to lights. The specific name ''calthella'', is named after the marsh marigold (''

Caltha palustris ''Caltha palustris'', known as marsh-marigold and kingcup, is a small to medium size perennial herbaceous plant of the buttercup family, native to marshes, fens, ditches and wet woodland in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. It flower ...

''); the moth can be found feeding on its pollen. Later the moth was renamed as ''Micropterix calthella'', with the genus raised by the German

entomologist Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arach ...

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 1825. It comes from the Greek for mikros – little, and pterux – a wing.

References

External links

''Micropterix calthella'' at Naturhistoriska riksmuseet

Description

Behaviour

Taxonomy

References

External links

Further reading