Katha depressa

Katha depressa, the buff footman, is a moth of the family Erebidae. It is found from western Europe east through the Palearctic (northern Asia Minor, Crimea, Abkhazia, Transcaucasia, southern Siberia, Middle Amur, Primorye, Sakhalin, Kunashir, Zhejiang) to Korea and Japan.

Caterpillar
Pupa

Katha depressa
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Superfamily: Noctuoidea
Family: Erebidae
Subfamily: Arctiinae
Genus: Katha
Species:
K. depressa
Binomial name
Katha depressa
(Esper, 1787)[1]
Synonyms
  • Phalaena deplana Esper, 1787
  • Eilema deplana
  • Phalaena depressa Esper, 1787
  • Eilema depressa
  • Katha deplana
  • Eilema depressum
  • Noctua complana Esper, 1787 (preocc. Linnaeus)
  • Noctua luteola Hübner, 1788
  • Bombyx helvola Hübner, [1803]
  • Bombyx ochreola Hübner, [1803]
  • Lithosia helveola Ochsenheimer, 1810
  • Lithosia deplana var. unicolor Bankes, 1902
  • Lithosia deplana ab. atra Torstenius, 1956
  • Lithosia deplana f. albescens Lempke, 1961
  • Lithosia deplana f. flavescens Lempke, 1961
  • Lithosia pavescens Butler, 1877
  • Eilema depressa bergmani Bryk, 1948
  • Eilema confusa Miyake, 1907
  • Lithosia nihonica Daniel, 1954

Technical description and variation
For a key to the terms used, see Glossary of entomology terms.

The length of the forewings is 15–17 mm. Both wings dark brown grey, with the costa of the forewing and the fringes light bright yellow, especially in the female. The ground colour is often more or less lightened with ochreous, sometimes almost clay-colour (ochreola Hbn.), or nearly whitish (helveola Ochs.) or of an indefinite intermediate shade (luteola Hbn.). In pavescens Butl. from Hokkaido (Island of Yezo), the wings are dirty greyish yellow; the hindwing lighter. [2]

Subspecies
  • Katha deplana deplana
  • Katha deplana pavescens (Butler, 1877) (Russia: Middle Amur, Primorye, Sakhalin, Kunashir; Korea; Japan)

Biology

The moth flies from June to September depending on the location.

Larva dirty lead grey, bearing a yellow dorsal stripe with dark edges and three raised black transverse spots anteriorly, posteriorly and in the centre, and black markings laterally. The larvae feed on lichen and algae, especially on Pinophyta, but also on oak and Calluna. Until June, on lichens on trees. Pupa glossy red brown. The moths singly but not rare, in July and the beginning of August, may especially be beaten from young conifers.

gollark: I suppose so.
gollark: You could just go back in time and not be shot.
gollark: FTL is equivalent to time travel, apparently.
gollark: Only if you're 100 light years away.
gollark: Galaxies are big, so possibly hundreds of thousands, more if it's further awya.

References
  1. Dubatolov, V. V. & Zolotuhin, V. V. (2011). "Does Eilema Hübner, [1819] (Lepidoptera, Arctiidae, Lithosiinae) present one or several genera?" (PDF). Euroasian Entomological Journal. 10 (3): 367–379, 380, VII.
  2. Seitz, E. in 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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