Drymonia ruficornis, the lunar marbled brown, is a moth of the family Notodontidae. It is found in Central and Southern Europe and Anatolia.
Description The wingspan is 35–40 mm. The fore wings are dark fuscous, almost blackish, with a short white line near the base; the central third is white clouded with the ground colour and limited by white edged black wavy lines. There is a black crescent just above the centre of the wing. Hind wings smoky grey with a pale curved line. Drymonia dodonaea is very similar.
Technical description Thorax greyish brown to light grey, abdomen light. brown. Forewing dark grey-brown, the dark pre-and postdiscal zigzag bands as in querna but closer together, particularly at the hind margin, edged with white on the proximal and distal sides respectively; the median area between the transverse bands paler grey, bearing a sharp black luniform discal spot; in the marginal area a whitish undulate line, which is frequently obsolete. Hindwing light grey-brown. In the southern districts, from southern Central Europe southward, a uniformly darker form predominates, grisea Turati (45e), m which the median area of the forewing is also darkened. Another form, which we call ab.lunula.nov . (45e), is intermediate between grisea and true chaonia [ruficornis]; the whitish colour is restricted to the outer half of the median area beyond the cell and usually interrupted in the centre into a costal and a hindmarginal patch. This aberration likewise belongs to the southern districts. . Egg green. Larva pale green, with 4 equidistant chrome-yellow longitudinal lines, of which the 2 dorsal ones are sometimes whitish, the lateral ones on a level with the black-edged spiracles. Pupa black-brown with lighter segmental incisions; in the ground in a cell lined with silk.Seitz, A., 1913, in Seitz, Gross-Schmett. Erde 6: 22., The Macrolepidoptera of the Palearctic Fauna 2. Volume: The Palearctic Bombyces & Sphinges. pdf
Biology
The moth flies from April to June depending on the location.
The larvae feed on oak.
References
Further reading South R. (1907) The Moths of the British Isles, (First Series), Frederick Warne & Co. Ltd., London & NY: 359 pp. online (as chaonia (Denis & Schiffermüller, 1775))
External links
Lunar marbled brown on UKmoths Lepidoptera of Belgium Lepiforum.de Vlindernet