''Moma alpium'', the scarce merveille du jour, 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 ...

. It is found in the

Palearctic realm The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Sibe ...

Technical description and variation

''D. alpium'' Osb. (= ''orion'' Esp.) (2c). Forewing blue green, the costa and both folds white: stigmata and lines black; outer hue with brown outer border; hindwing fuscous, with black and white marks at anal angle. In the form ''murrhina'' Grues. (2c), from Western Asia, the green of the forewing is much more broken up by black markings between the lines, and the brown shade beyond outer line is wider and extends into the fringe. The examples from Japan are as large as European, those from Korea decidedly smaller. Larva pale brown streaked with yellow; dorsum black with three transverse yellowish white blotches; tubercles reddish, bearing erect tufts of hairs. 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

Biology

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 30–35 mm. The moth flies from May to September depending on the location. The larvae feed on

oak 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 ''L ...

European beech ''Fagus sylvatica'', the European beech or common beech is a deciduous tree belonging to the beech family Fagaceae. Description ''Fagus sylvatica'' is a large tree, capable of reaching heights of up to tall and trunk diameter, though more ...

and

birch A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech-oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' contains 30 ...

References

External links

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''Fauna Europaea''''Lepiforum e. V.''

''De Vlinderstichting''
Pantheinae Moths of Japan Moths of Europe Moths of Asia Taxa named by Pehr Osbeck Moths described in 1778 {{Pantheinae-stub