Episema glaucina (Esper, 1789)


Episema glaucina: Male, at night in the vegetation (SW-Germany, Tübingen, Spitzberg, September 2018) [N] Episema glaucina: Male, at night in the vegetation (SW-Germany, Tübingen, Spitzberg, September 2018) [N] Episema glaucina: Male, at night in the vegetation (SW-Germany, Tübingen, Spitzberg, September 2018) [N] Episema glaucina: Male (e.l. Provence, France 2010, f. unicolor) [S] Episema glaucina: Male (e.l. Provence, France 2010, f. unicolor) [S] Episema glaucina: Ovae [S] Episema glaucina: L1 larva [S] Episema glaucina: Larva (Provence, France, April 2010) [M] Episema glaucina: Larva (Provence, France, April 2010) [M] Episema glaucina: Larva (Valais, Switzerland, April 2008) [M] Episema glaucina: Larva (Valais 2008) [M] Episema glaucina: Larva (Valais 2008) [M] Episema glaucina: Larva (Provence, France, April 2010) [S] Episema glaucina: Larva (Valais 2008) [M] Episema glaucina: Pupa (Provence, France 2010) [S] Episema glaucina: Pupa [S] Episema glaucina: Habitat (Valais) [N] Episema glaucina: Habitat at larval time (Valais, Switzerland, April 2008) [N] Episema glaucina: Habitat: traitorously bitten inflorescence (Valais, April 2008) [N] Episema glaucina: Habitat with Anthericum ramosum (SW-Germany, Tübingen, Spitzberg, late November 2018) [N]

Host plants:
The caterpillars live on Muscari (grape hyacinth) and Anthericum (grass lily).

Habitat:
Episema glaucina inhabits extensive meadows, nutrient-poor grasslands, steppe-slopes, open scrub and similar locations of the host plant.

Life cycle:
The young caterpillar hibernates. I found them half or fully-grown in late April in the Valais in a Muscari stock, where they were digged a few millimeters to centimeters in the soil and were betrayed only by a few bitten stems. The caterpillar rests then as prepupa until late summer. Thus the moths fly from mid-August to mid-October. The rule is that each hotter and low-lying the locality, the later the time of flight. Pupation is therefore probably linked to the occurrence of the first cool nights in late summer or autumn.

Endangerment: endangered

Endangerment factors:
Episema glaucina has already suffered massive losses especially north of the Alps by the decline of extensive habitat.

Remarks:
The distribution extends from Morocco across Southern and Central Europe to Western Asia.


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