Wittia sororcula

Orange footman
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Euarthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Superfamily: Noctuoidea
Family: Erebidae
Genus: Wittia
Species: W. sororcula
Binomial name
Wittia sororcula
(Hufnagel, 1766)[1]
Synonyms
  • Phalaena sororcula Hufnagel, 1766
  • Eilema sororcula
  • crocella Geoffroy, 1785
  • Noctua unita Esper, 1787
  • crocinella de Villers, 1789
  • Bombyx aureola Hübner, [1803]
  • Lithosia aurantia Haworth, 1809
  • Lithosia flava Lempke, 1938
  • Systropha sororcula orientalis Daniel, 1954
  • Eilema plumbea Rebel, 1912

Wittia sororcula or Eilema sorcula, the orange footman, is a moth of the family Erebidae. It is found in Europe, Anatolia and further east across the Palearctic to southern Siberia and the Amur basin to China.

Technical description and variation

The wingspan is 27–30 mm. Forewing with the costa strongly convex and therefore the apical portion of the forewing considerably broader than in the forms of the luterella -group. Head, thorax, end of abdomen and the forewing bright golden yellow, the hindwing of male but little paler; in the female both wings slightly paler orange yellow. In contradistinction to lutarella, the costal area of the hindwing above and beneath is never black. [2]

Transfer from Eilema to Wittia

The orange footman was previously placed in the genus Eilema, but was transferred to the genus Wittia by Dubatolov in 2011.[1]

Subspecies

Biology

The moth flies from April to June depending on the location. Larva blackish, with two yellow dorsal stripes with red dots and white spots. The larvae feed on lichen on trees, both on conifers (Ochsenhemer) and on deciduous trees (Spuler). Can be obtained by beating saplings, also in bushes and in the grass, sometimes feeding at flowers in the daytime.

References

  1. 1 2 Dubatolov, V. V. & V. V. Zolotuhin. (2011). Does Eilema Hübner, (1819) (Lepidoptera, Arctiidae, Lithosiinae) present one or several genera? Euroasian Entomological Journal 10(3) 367-79, 380, col. plate VII.
  2. ↑ Seitz, A. Ed. Die Großschmetterlinge der Erde, Verlag Alfred Kernen, Stuttgart Band 2: Abt. 1, Die Großschmetterlinge des palaearktischen Faunengebietes, Die palaearktischen Spinner und Schwärmer, 1912- 1913


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