Cucullia argentea (Hufnagel, 1766)

Host plants:
The caterpillar lives on Artemisia campestris.

Habitat:
Cucullia argentea inhabits sandy grasslands, dunes and only rarely locally also rocky and dry slopes with the larval host plant. I found the caterpillar in a sandy embankment of a sand pit (Brandenburg) and together with Cucullia artemisiae in sandy, open to semi-open areas in sparse sand forests in northeastern Saxony.

Life cycle:
The pupa hibernates. The moths fly from July to September. The caterpillar is found from August to October with a peak in the second half of September. They live mainly on barren places that are fully exposed to the sun.

Endangerment: endangered

Endangerment factors:
Cucullia argentea has been pushed back by destruction of the sandy grasslands already heavily (afforestation, growing asparagus and generally agriculture, overbuilding, succession, filling of sand pits, locally also tourism, etc.). I observed the caterpillars west of Cottbus (Brandenburg) in September 2012 in a south-facing embankment of a sand pit which was backfilled with excavation and garden waste.

Remarks:
Cucullia argentea is recoreded only locally from Spain and Southern France (coastal dunes in the Languedoc)as well as north west Italy. It is something more common in northern and eastern Central Europe (northern and eastern Germany from Saxony to the north) and from Eastern Europe to northern Siberia.