Diaphora mendica (Clerck, 1759)


Diaphora mendica: Male (e.o. eastern Swabian Alb, Southern Germany) [S] Diaphora mendica: Male [S] Diaphora mendica: Male [S] Diaphora mendica: Male [S] Diaphora mendica: Male [S] Diaphora mendica: Male-portrait [S] Diaphora mendica: Female (e.o. eastern Swabian Alb, Southern Germany) [S] Diaphora mendica: Female [S] Diaphora mendica: Female [S] Diaphora mendica: Female [S] Diaphora mendica: Female (worn, eastern Swabian Alb) [N] Diaphora mendica: Female, ventral side [S] Diaphora mendica: Mating [S] Diaphora mendica: Mating [S] Diaphora mendica: Ovae at Parietaria (Northern Greece, May 2010) [N] Diaphora mendica: Ovae [S] Diaphora mendica: Ovae [S] Diaphora mendica: L1-larva (end L1) [S] Diaphora mendica: Young larva (e.o. Northern Greece, May 2010) [S] Diaphora mendica: Half-grown larva (e.o. eastern Swabian Alb, Southern Germany) [S] Diaphora mendica: Larva (Provence, France) [M] Diaphora mendica: Larva (e.o. eastern Swabian Alb, Southern Germany) [S] Diaphora mendica: Larva (e.o. eastern Swabian Alb, Southern Germany) [S] Diaphora mendica: Larva (eastern Swabian Alb, Southern Germany) [S] Diaphora mendica: Pupa [S] Diaphora mendica: Pupa lateral [S] Diaphora mendica: Habitat on the eastern Swabian Alb, Southern Germany [N]

Host plants:
The caterpillar lives polyphagous on herbs and shrubs. I found them on Galium, Vicia and Rubus idaeus in the eastern Swabian Alb .

Habitat:
Diaphora mendica inhabits bright, grove rich habitats with edges such as sparse forests, clearcuts, hedge areas, dry slopes with higher growing vegetation and ruderal terrain. It occurs sporadically also in urban areas.

Life cycle:
The pupa hibernates. The moths fly in a single generation from mainly April to mid-June. At higher altitudes they fly until early July. The caterpillar lives from late May through August, rarely later.

Endangerment: regionally endangered or decreasing

Endangerment factors:
Diaphora mendica is dependent on extensively managed habitats and edges. The most intensive agriculture (intensive manure meadows and corn fields in the open country, dark forest management in teh woodlands) increasingly repress also this quite adaptable species.

Remarks:
Diaphora mendica is widely distributed in Europe (except in Southern Spain and the Arctic North of Scandinavia) and temperate Asia.



Diaphora sordida