Achlya flavicornis, the yellow horned, is a moth of the family Drepanidae.[1] The species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae. It is found from Europe to the eastern Palearctic ecozone.

Achlya flavicornis
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Drepanidae
Genus: Achyla
Species:
A. flavicornis
Binomial name
Achlya flavicornis
Synonyms
  • Phalaena flavicornis Linnaeus, 1758
  • Phalaena cinerea Hufnagel, 1766
  • Phalaena (Noctua) sulphureomaculata Retzius, 1783
  • Noctua luteicornis Haworth, 1810
  • Asphalia finmarchica Schöyen, 1881
  • Polyploca flavicornis lapponica Rangnow, 1935
  • Polyploca flavicornis meridionalis Wolfsberger, 1968
  • Asphalia galbanus Tutt, 1891
Larva
Birch woodland habitat

The wingspan is 35–40 mm. The length of the forewings is 17–20 mm. The ground colour is greenish grey, sometimes speckled or dusted with darker grey. The reniform and orbicular marks are generally clear and distinct, but in some examples they are united and form a whitish blotch outlined in blackish; the cross lines are usually well defined, but in the dark grey dusted form are very obscure. The moth flies from February to April depending on the location.

The final instar larva is either off white all over or off white below the spiracles and darker greyish or olive green dorsally. There is a row of black spots and finely black-edged white dots. The insect overwinters as a pupa in a cocoon, amongst leaf litter.

The larvae feed on birch.

Subspecies edit

  • Achlya flavicornis flavicornis
  • Achlya flavicornis jesoensis (Matsumura, 1927) (Russian Far East, north-eastern China, Korea, Japan: Hokkaido)
  • Achlya flavicornis sikhotensis Tshistjakov, 2008 (Russian Far East)[2]

References edit

  1. ^ "Yellow Horned Achlya flavicornis". UKMoths. Archived from the original on 2014-09-10. Retrieved 2017-03-18.
  2. ^ Tshistjakov, B.A., 2008 Far Eastern species of the genus Achlya Billberg, 1820 (Lepidoptera,. Drepanidae: Thyatirinae) with notes on their synonymy Far Eastern Entomologist. N 180. P. 1-10. pdf Archived October 20, 2013, at the Wayback Machine

External links edit