''Thaumetopoea pinivora'', the eastern pine processionary, 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

Notodontidae Notodontidae is a family of moths with approximately 3,800 known species. The family was described by James Francis Stephens in 1829. Moths of this family are found in all parts of the world, but they are most concentrated in tropical areas, espe ...

. The species was first described by

Georg Friedrich Treitschke Georg Friedrich Treitschke (; 29 August 1776 – 4 June 1842) was a German libretto, librettist, translator and lepidopterist. He was born in Leipzig and died in Vienna. In 1800 he came to the Vienna Hofoper. From 1809 to 1814 he was principal ...

in 1834. It is found in southeast and central Europe and

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 ...

. 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 15–18 mm. The moths are on wing from May to September. The larvae feed on ''

Pinus A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. The World Flora Online created by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew and Missouri Botanical Garden accep ...

'' species.

Sources

* P.C.-Rougeot, P. Viette (1978). ''Guide des papillons nocturnes d'Europe et d'Afrique du Nord''. Delachaux et Niestlé (Lausanne).

External links

''Fauna Europaea''''Lepiforum e.V.''
Notodontidae Moths of Europe Taxa named by Georg Friedrich Treitschke Moths described in 1834 {{Notodontidae-stub