Euplagia quadripunctaria (Poda, 1761)

Poda, N. (1761). Insecta Musei Graecensis, quae in ordines, genera et
species juxta Systema Naturae Caroli Linnaei digessit: pp. 89-90, no. 20.
Described in the genus Phalaena (Noctua). Translated from the Latin
original.

Quadripunctaria. 20. Phalaena Noctua with spiral tongue, smooth, with the
fore wings dark green with a whitish line and three whitish transverse
bands; the hind wings red, spotted with black; the abdomen dotted in four
rows. Roes. ins. 4. t. 28.
A whitish line at the inner margin. Two of the bands run together. The hind
wing beneath with a single black spot.

Seitz, A. (1910). Callimorpha. In: Seitz, A. (ed.), The Macrolepidoptera of
the World, vol. 2, The Palaearctic Bombyces and Sphinges: pp. 101-102,
pl. 18 f. (German edition: Die Gross-Schmetterlinge der Erde 2: 101-102.)
As Callimorpha quadripunctaria.

C. quadripunctaria Poda (= hera L.) (18 f). The Jersey Tiger, generally
known under Linne's name of hera, has a greenish black forewing banded with
white, the hindwing in typical specimens being bright vermilion with three
black spots at the apex of the cell and before the outer margin. Throughout
Europe with the exception of the North and Western Asia, from England and
Western France to Persia and from Livonia and St. Petersburg to the
Mediterranean; also mentioned from Egypt, but probably only in the district
bounding on Syria, if this record is not erroneous. -- While the specimens
from near the northern boundary of the area (e. g. at Crefeld, in the Harz
mountains and Northern Russia) are usually not larger than dominula, there
occurs in the South at Digne, Clausen, in Dalmatia, etc., a large but
otherwise not different form, which has long appeared in collections and
dealers' lists as magna. -- In Syria, especially in the Lebanon, at Adana,
etc., a similar form occurs, as large as magna, this is fulgida Oberth.
(18 f), which is distinguished by the narrow stripes of the forewing and
especially by the fiery red colour of the hindwing, which is much deeper
than in magna; moreover, the black spots on the hindwing are larger. -- The
red colour of the hindwing may also turn to orange; this form, which occurs
especially in Brittany, is called ab. saturnina Oberth. (18 f). It forms a
transition to the form ab. lutescens Stgr. (18 f), likewise not uncommon in
Northern France, but occurring also elsewhere, with strong stripes on the
forewing and light yellow hindwing. -- A varying reduction in the white
stripes of the forewing has repeatedly been observed and has given occasion
for proposing various names (nigricans Kempny, medionigra Spul., perfusca
Bast., costimacula Spul.). Lastly the stripes of the forewing may be
present, but changed in colour; this is the case in ab. brunnescens Spul.
-- Larva dark brown-grey, with orange warts and dorsal spots and brown and
rather short hair; fine yellow irroration laterally; head black.
Hibernates when young, and lives until June on low-growing plants, but also
likes to feed on tender shoots of oak. Pupa dark brown, in a loose cocoon.
The moths appear at the end of July or in August, and fly in daytime in
quarries and rocky places. In some years they are exceedingly abundant;
they visit Umbellifers, Scabious, Watermint, Echium and other flowers,
especially at brook-sides. In the North of their area they are becoming
rarer.