''Zygaena punctum'' 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 ...

in the family

Zygaenidae The Zygaenidae moths are a family of Lepidoptera. The majority of zygaenids are tropical, but they are nevertheless quite well represented in temperate regions. Some of the 1000 or so species are commonly known as burnet or forester moths, ofte ...

. It is found in

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, the

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, the

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and

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Technical description and variation (Seitz)

''Z. punctum'' O. Represents the preceding African insect ''Zygaena_favonia''_Frr..html" ;"title="Zygaena_favonia.html" ;"title="''Zygaena favonia">''Zygaena favonia'' Frr.">Zygaena_favonia.html" ;"title="''Zygaena favonia">''Zygaena favonia'' Frr.in the South of Europe. Position of the red spots as in ''Zygaena sarpedon'', but the apical spot enlarged, appearing washed out, being deeper red centrally and pale at the edges. Red abdominal belt always absent. Name-typical ''punctum'' occurs at the north-east coasts of the Mediterranean Sea, as far as Armenia; small, the markings of forewing more or less confluent, the hindmargin remaining broadly black. — In ''dystrepta'' Fisch.-Wald. now ''Zygaena punctum dystrepta'' Fischer de Waldheim, 1832 from S. E. Europe and Asia Minor, the hindmargin is only very narrowly shaded with black, the forewing being otherwise all blood-red except distal margin; this colour replaced by miniate ed lead or vermilionin a specimen from Asia Minor received from Messrs. Staudinger and Bang-Haas under the name of ''malatina'' — ''italica'' Stgr.-Reb. 'italica'' Stgr.-Reb. now a synonym of ''punctum''is a more densely scaled and therefore brighter coloured form from South and Central Italy, the apical patch being distinctly separated from the basal area by a narrow black interspace, while in the much larger ''contamineoides'' Stgr. (= ''contaminei'' Zell, ''dalmatina'' H.-Sch.) now ''Z. punctum'' ssp. ''ledereri'' Rambur, 1858 from Spain, Italy, and Sicily, a broad interspace isolates the apical spot completely. — Larva greenish, with white dorsal line and subdorsal rows of black dots, below which there are larger yellow spots. Head and thoracical legs black, abdominal legs yellow; in May and June on ''Eryngium''. The imago in July at very limited localities, but rather common, flying low. 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 25–30 mm.

Biology

Adults are on wing from the end of May to July. The larvae feed on ''

Eryngium ''Eryngium'' is a genus of flowering plants in the family Apiaceae. There are about 250 species.Wang, P., et al. (2012)Phytochemical constituents and pharmacological activities of ''Eryngium'' L. (Apiaceae). ''Pharmaceutical Crops'' 3 99-120. The ...

'' species.Schmetterlinge und ihre Ökologie
/ref> The species overwinters in the larval stage. Full-grown larvae can be found in May.

Subspecies

*''Zygaena punctum punctum'' *''Zygaena punctum dalmatina'' Boisduval, 1834 *''Zygaena punctum dystrepta'' Fischer de Waldheim, 1832 *''Zygaena punctum itala'' Burgeff, 1926 *''Zygaena punctum kalavrytica'' Reiss, 1962 *''Zygaena punctum kefersteinii'' Herrich-Schaffer, 1846 *''Zygaena punctum ledereri'' Rambur, 1858 *''Zygaena punctum malatina'' Dziurzynski, 1903

References

Moths described in 1808 Zygaena Moths of Europe Moths of Asia Taxa named by Ferdinand Ochsenheimer {{Zygaenidae-stub