Periphanes delphinii (Linnaeus, 1758)

Host plants:
The larvae feed on Consolida sp. (= Delphinium).

Habitat:
Periphanes delphinii inhabits extensively managed arable and fallow land with the host plants, more rarely also garigues, embankments and similar places.

Life cycle:
The pupa hibernates. The moths occur in one or two generations between April and August/September. The second generation is usually not complete. I recorded the larvae quite common in NW-Bulgaria (Oblast Sofia) in early June 2018. Moths of the partial second generations appeared in rearing between late June and early August.

Endangerment factors:
Periphanes delphinii has already been pushed back severely by agricultural intensification. Unfortunately the still very nature-damaging European agricultural policy (e.g. completely false subsidy policy) will destroy most of the still existing populations especially in SE-Europe.

Remarks:
This steppe species occurs from NW-Africa across S- and SE-Europe and temperate Asia to at least Afghanistan. In Central Europe it has already been extirpated by agricultural intensification after world war two. Its strongholds are nowadays in SE-Europe (e.g. Bulgaria, Romania, N-Greece).