Watsonarctia
Genus and species of moth
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Watsonarctia is a monotypic moth genus in the subfamily Arctiinae erected by Josef J. de Freina and Thomas Joseph Witt in 1984. Its only species, Watsonarctia deserta, the chaste pellicle, was first described by Max Bartel in 1902.[1] It is found in central and south-eastern Europe, southern Russia, southern Siberia east to Lake Baikal; also in Asia Minor, Armenia, Azerbaijan, northern Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Xinjiang in China.[2]
| Watsonarctia | |
|---|---|
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Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Superfamily: | Noctuoidea |
| Family: | Erebidae |
| Subfamily: | Arctiinae |
| Subtribe: | Spilosomina |
| Genus: | Watsonarctia de Freina & Witt, 1984 |
| Species: | W. deserta |
| Binomial name | |
| Watsonarctia deserta (Bartel, 1902) | |
| Synonyms | |
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Generic
Specific
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The wingspan is 26–32 mm.
The larvae feed on Asperula, Achillea and Galium species (including Galium verum and Galium odoratum).
Subspecies
- Watsonarctia deserta deserta (Bartel, 1902) (southern and central Europe, Caucasus, north-western Kazakhstan, southern Siberia, northern Mongolia)
- Watsonarctia deserta karduchena (de Freina, 1983) (Anatolia)
- Watsonarctia deserta centralasiae (O. Bang-Haas, 1927) (mountains of eastern Kazakhstan, Xinjiang, eastern Tien Shan)
- Watsonarctia deserta elbursica Dubatolov & Zahiri, 2005 (northern Iran)
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