Epirrhoe hastulata (Hübner, 1790)

Host plants:
The caterpillar lives on Galium sylvaticum.

Habitat:
Epirrhoe hastulata inhabits fringes, edges and light spots in mesophilic to rather dry forests, especially beech forests, where vast stocks of Galium occur. Slopes are apparently preferred.

Life cycle:
The moths fly in a single generation from May to early July. In warm climates, there is often added a very partial second generation in July/August. The caterpillars are found from mid-June to September (peak in late June/July). I found many larvae in early July 2010 along with Catarhoe rubidata and Catarhoe cuculata in a slopy beech forest on the eastern Swabian Alb. The pupa overwinters.

Endangerment: endangered

Endangerment factors:
Epirrhoe hastulata is threatened by forestry measures (dense afforestation with non-native and dark trees, mechanical destruction of fringes), and probably by the proliferation of nitrogen-loving plants (blackberries, etc.) due to over-fertilization from the air.

Remarks:
Epirrhoe hastulata occurs very locally in central, northern and Southeastern Europe (the Balkans). It is also found in temperate Asia to the Kuril Islands and Kamchatka.