Brithys crini Fabricius, 1775

Host plants:
The caterpillars live on Pancratium maritimum.

Habitat:
Brithys crini inhabits especially coastal dunes with the presence of the larval host plant.

Life cycle:
I found the caterpillar in Sardinia in mid-May 2012. The moths fly from late March to May and then again in an at least partial second generation in August/September. The caterpillars are thus probably most likely to occur from late April to June and again in September/October.

The caterpillars live at least initially sociable and mine in the leaves. Later they eat in a sort of scraping on the leaves and eat parts of the leaves totally. They scatter a bit in last instar. Pupation takes place in the sand rather superficially.

Endangerment factors:
Brithys crini is highly endangered in Europe as the European shores are extremely affected by redevelopment and tourism (infrastructure, bathing) such as for extremely heavily in the Côte d'Azur. Their habitats deserve unconditional protection!

Remarks:
The subtropical species occurs in Europe especially on the coasts from Portugal through Spain and Southern France (primarily in the western parts, on the Cote d'Azur now extinct) to Italy. In Sardinia it is locally common. Further east (Croatia) it is extremely local and seems to miss completely in Greece.