''Tethea or'', the poplar lutestring, 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

Drepanidae The Drepanidae are a family of moths with about 660 species described worldwide. They are generally divided in three subfamilies) which share the same type of hearing organ. Thyatirinae, previously often placed in their own family, bear a super ...

. It was first described by

Michael Denis Johann Nepomuk Cosmas Michael Denis, also: ''Sined the Bard'', (27 September 1729 – 29 September 1800) was an Austrian Catholic priest and Jesuit, who is best known as a poet, bibliographer, and lepidopterist. Life Denis was born at Schärding ...

and

Ignaz Schiffermüller Ignaz Schiffermüller (born 2 October 1727 in Hellmonsödt; died 21 June 1806 in Linz) was an Austrian naturalist mainly interested in Lepidoptera. Schiffermüller was a teacher at the Theresianum College in Vienna. His collection was presented ...

in 1775. The species can be found in Europe, northern and eastern Asia and

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. The imago resembles '' Tethea ocularis''. Tehtea or

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 38–43 mm. The moths flies from April to August depending on the location. The larvae feed on

willow Willows, also called sallows and osiers, from the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 400 speciesMabberley, D.J. 1997. The Plant Book, Cambridge University Press #2: Cambridge. of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist s ...

and poplar, mainly ''

Populus tremula ''Populus tremula'' (commonly called aspen, common aspen, Eurasian aspen, European aspen, or quaking aspen) is a species of poplar native to cool temperate regions of Europe and Asia, from Iceland and the British IslesJames KilkellIrish native ...

''.

Subspecies

*''Tethea or or'' (Europe to Turkey) *''Tethea or akanensis'' (Matsumura, 1933) (Japan) *''Tethea or terrosa'' (Graeser, 1888) (Russia, Korea, Mongolia, China: Heilongjiang, Jilin, Liaoning, Inner Mongolia, Beijing, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Ningxia, Gansu, Xinjiang)

External links

Poplar lutestring on ''UKMoths''''Lepiforum.de''''Vlindernet.nl''
Thyatirinae Moths described in 1775 Drepanid moths of Great Britain Moths of Europe Moths of Asia Taxa named by Michael Denis Taxa named by Ignaz Schiffermüller {{Thyatirinae-stub