Hypsopygia glaucinalis

Hypsopygia glaucinalis
Adult in Dresden (Saxony, Germany)
Mounted adult
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Pyralidae
Genus:	Hypsopygia
Species:	H. glaucinalis
Binomial name
Hypsopygia glaucinalis (Linnaeus, 1758)
Synonyms
Phalaena (Pyralis) glaucinalis Linnaeus, 1758 Ocrasa glaucinalis Herculia glaucinalis Orthopygia glaucinalis Herculia nigralis Evers, 1958 Pyralis nitidalis Fabricius, 1794 Pyralis yokohamae Butler, 1879

Hypsopygia glaucinalis is a moth of the family Pyralidae. It is sometimes placed in the genus Orthopygia either alone or with a few other species. Being the type species of Orthopygia, as soon as O. glaucinalis is placed in Ocrasa (as is done here) "Orthopygia" is abolished. To further complicate matters, Ocrasa is now mostly treated as a synonym or subgenus of Hypsopygia.

It is native to the European continent. The wingspan is 23–31 mm. The adults fly from June to October in the temperate parts of its range (such as Belgium and the Netherlands).

Figs 3. 3a, 3b, 3c, 3d larvae in various stages in accumulations of twigs and rubbish at knots of birch

The caterpillars feed on decaying plants and dry leaves. They have been found in some fairly unusual locations, such as Buteo nests, straw and thatching, and discarded paper.

References

• Grabe, Albert (1942): Eigenartige Geschmacksrichtungen bei Kleinschmetterlingsraupen ["Strange tastes among micromoth caterpillars"]. Zeitschrift des Wiener Entomologen-Vereins 27: 105-109 [in German]. PDF fulltext
• Savela, Markku (2005): Markku Savela's Lepidoptera and some other life forms – Orthopygia. Version of 2005-SEP-08. Retrieved 2010-APR-12.

External links

• Media related to Hypsopygia glaucinalis at Wikimedia Commons
• waarneming.nl (in Dutch)
• Lepidoptera of Belgium