Polytela cliens Felder, 1874

Host plants:
The caterpillars live on Dipcadi serotina and according to literature also Pancratium tortuosum.

Habitat:
Polytela cliens colonizes arid areas such as semi-desert, dry valleys, etc. In Fuerteventura, I found numerous moths, eggs and young caterpillars in late February 2011 in semi-desert sand areas between Costa Calma and Morro Jable. Polytela cliens was absent from Dipcadi stands on rocky slopes further in the inland (Betancuria), which might be due to the lack of coincidence of the flowering time with the time of flight of the moth: While Dipcadi only just blossomed on sand, it was already fruiting on rocky slopes.

Life cycle:
The moths fly mainly in February and March. The eggs are deposited in clutches of 5 to 40 pieces or more on flower shoots (flowers, buds, and sometimes on the stem. In mid-February 2011, I had to search many flowers at Costa Calma in order to find eggs. 10 days later (26/02/2011) hardly an inflorescence was left without eggs or young caterpillars. At the same time the moth density reached a maximum of more than 15 individuals per night at the hotel lighting. The majority was killed there each following day by crushing etc.

The young caterpillars live to L4 on the flowers and the developing fruits, where a single shoot is not likely to suffice with large number of eggs. The older larvae should then live according to literature on the bulbs of the host plant in the sand (maybe another reason of the absence on rocky loam slopes). The pupa rests then to the following spring. A pupal phase which individually lasts several years is reported in literature. This is typical of species living in arid areas (but not only for them).

Endangerment factors:
Polytela cliens is threatened by tourism in Fuerteventura, which already large parts of the sandy semi-deserts have fallen victim (Morro Jable, Costa Calma, etc.) In addition, an negative effect is caused by individually standing hotels on the coast respectively their nightly illumination. Nevertheless, Polytela cliens could yet survive in larger numbers of individuals.

In the other parts of the range Polytela cliens is likely to be less endangered.

Remarks:
Polytela cliens occurs from Fuerteventura (Canary Islands, Spain) across north Africa, the Near East (Israel, Jordan) and the Arabian Peninsula to southern Iran and India.