The peach blossom (''Thyatira batis'') 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

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

in his 1758 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae''. It is found throughout Europe and east through the

Palearctic 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 ...

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 ...

and

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...

. It is a fairly common species in the

British Isles The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isles, ...

. It is a striking species with brown forewings marked with five pink and white blotches which do rather resemble the

petal Petals are modified Leaf, leaves that surround the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often advertising coloration, brightly colored or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the ''c ...

s of

peach The peach (''Prunus persica'') is a deciduous tree first domesticated and cultivated in Zhejiang province of Eastern China. It bears edible juicy fruits with various characteristics, most called peaches and others (the glossy-skinned, non-fu ...

blossom. The hindwings are buff and grey. 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 40–45 mm. The species flies at night, in western Europe in June and July sometimes with a partial second brood emerges in late August and September. The species is attracted to light and

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or double ...

. Thyatira batis MHNT.CUT.2012.0.356. Female Gières.jpg, Both sides MHNT Thyatira batis 080806.jpg, Caterpillar Thyatira batis 06 (HS).jpg, Pupa The

larva A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. The ...

is brown with white markings and several humps along its back. At rest it raises both ends as with many drepanids. It feeds on various ''

Rubus ''Rubus'' is a large and diverse genus of flowering plants in the rose family, Rosaceae, subfamily Rosoideae, with over 1,350 species. Raspberries, blackberries, and dewberries are common, widely distributed members of the genus. Most of these ...

'' species. The species overwinters as a

pupa A pupa ( la, pupa, "doll"; plural: ''pupae'') is the life stage of some insects undergoing transformation between immature and mature stages. Insects that go through a pupal stage are holometabolous: they go through four distinct stages in their ...

. # ''The flight season refers to the

. This may vary in other parts of the range.''

Subspecies

* ''Thyatira batis batis'' (Russia, Mongolia, Japan, Turkey, Iran, Caucasus, Algeria, Europe, China: Heilongjiang, Jilin, Inner Mongolia, Beijing, Hebei, Shaanxi, Gansu, Xinjiang) * ''Thyatira batis formosicola'' Matsumura, 1933 (Taiwan) * ''Thyatira batis pallida'' (Rothschild, 1920) (Sumatra) * ''Thyatira batis rubrescens'' Werny, 1966 (India, Nepal, Vietnam, China: Henan, Shaanxi, Anhui, Zhejiang, Hubei, Jiangxi, Hunan, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Tibet)

References

* Chinery, Michael ''Collins Guide to the Insects of Britain and Western Europe'' 1986 (Reprinted 1991) * Skinner, Bernard ''Colour Identification Guide to Moths of the British Isles'' 1984

External links

* *
Peach Blossom at ''UKMoths''

''Lepiforum.de''
{{Taxonbar, from=Q640500 Thyatirinae Drepanid moths of Great Britain Moths of Asia Moths described in 1758 Moths of Europe Moths of Japan Moths of New Zealand Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus