''Stenoptilia bipunctidactyla'', also known as the twin-spot plume 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

Pterophoroidea The Pterophoridae or plume moths are a family of Lepidoptera with unusually modified wings. Though they belong to the Apoditrysia like the larger moths and the butterflies, unlike these they are tiny and were formerly included among the assemblag ...

family found in North Africa, Asia and Europe. It was first described by the

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

and naturalist,

Giovanni Antonio Scopoli Giovanni Antonio Scopoli (sometimes Latinized as Johannes Antonius Scopolius) (3 June 1723 – 8 May 1788) was an Italian physician and naturalist. His biographer Otto Guglia named him the "first anational European" and the "Linnaeus of the Au ...

in 1763. It is one of four similar looking moths.

Description

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 o ...

is 17–25 mm. The moths fly from dusk, in two overlapping generations from March to October, depending on location. They are also attracted to light. ;Similar species This moth may be an aggregate of species with similar looking wings and is part of the ''Stenoptilia bipunctidactyla'' group of four species which all look similar. The other moths of this group are, * small scabious plume ('' Stenoptilia annadactyla'') * scarce plume ('' Stenoptilia inopinata'') * Gregson's plume ('' Stenoptilia scabiodactylus'') ;Early stages The larvae feed on devil's-bit scabious ('' Succisa pratensis''), common toadflax (''

Linaria vulgaris ''Linaria vulgaris'', the common toadflax,Blamey, M. & Grey-Wilson, C. (1989). ''Flora of Britain and Northern Europe''. yellow toadflax or butter-and-eggs, is a species of flowering plant in the family Plantaginaceae, native to Europe, Siberia ...

''), weasel's snout ('' Misopates orontium''), small scabious (''

Scabiosa columbaria ''Scabiosa columbaria'', called the small scabious or dwarf pincushion flower, is a widespread species of flowering plant in the genus ''Scabiosa'', native to Europe, Africa, and western Asia, from Sweden to Angola. In the garden it is a short-li ...

'') and widow flower (''

Knautia ''Knautia'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Caprifoliaceae The Caprifoliaceae or honeysuckle family is a clade of dicotyledonous flowering plants consisting of about 860 species, in 33, to 42 genera, with a nearly cosmopolitan ...

'' species). There are differences in the early and intermediate larval

instar 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 ...

s which may be two different species or the variation may be due to diet, season or normal variation within the species. Larvae found on one foodplant can be reared on the other foodplant. They overwinter as an early instar. Spring generation larvae feed within a stem and some, later in a folded leaf, while the summer generation feed in the flowers. Pupae are attached to the larval foodplant or to a nearby stem.

Distribution

The twin-spot plume is found in

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 subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

Asia Minor Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...

, Syria,

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

and

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 ...

.Notes on the tribes Platyptiliini and Exelastini from Iran (Lepidoptera: Pterophoridae)

References

External links

Microlepidoptera.nl
bipunctidactyla Moths described in 1763 Plume moths of Africa Plume moths of Asia Plume moths of Europe Taxa named by Giovanni Antonio Scopoli {{Pterophoridae-stub