Parasemia plantaginis (Linnaeus, 1758)

Linnaeus, C. (1758). Systema Naturae, ed. 10, vol. 1: p. 501, no. 25.
Described in the genus Phalaena (Bombyx). Translated from the Latin
original.

Plantaginis. 25. Phalaena Bombyx without tongue, with deflexed black wings
with yellow rivulets; the lower ones red, spotted with black.
Fn. svec. 821. Wilk. pap. 24. t. 3. a. 15. It. gotl. 273.
Lives on Plantago, Hyacinthus.
The sex varies: where the male is tawny, there the female, with setaceous
antennae, is scarlet.
Larva hirsute, black, with a rufous head.

Hampson, G. F. (1901). Catalogue of the Lepidoptera Phalaenae in the British
Museum, vol. 3: pp. 458-460, text-fig. 199.

2054. Parasemia plantaginis.

Bombyx plantaginis, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 501 (1758); Esp. Schmett. iii.
p. 188, pl. 36. ff. 1-8; Hubn. Eur. Schmett. ii. ff. 127, 128; Godt. Lep.
Fr. iv. p. 320, pl. 23. ff. 2-4; Steph. Ill. Brit. Ent., Haust. ii. p. 72;
Staud. Cat. p. 56; Kirby, Cat. Het. p. 250.
Bombyx alpicola, Scop. Ent. Carn. p. 205 (1763).
Bombyx hospita, Den. & Schiff. Wien. Verz. p. 310 (1776); Esp. Schmett. iii.
p. 188, pl. 36. ff. 3, 4; Hubn. Eur. Schmett. ii. f. 126; Streck. Proc.
Davenp. Soc. ii. p. 272, pl. 9. f. 2.
Bombyx matronalis, Freyer, Neu. Beitr. v. p. 37, pl. 405 (1843).
Chelonia caucasica, Herr.-Schaff. Schmett. Eur. ii. p. 147, ff. 42-44
(1845).
Nemeophila petrosa, Wlk. iii. 626 (1855); Kirby, Cat. Het. p. 251.
Lithosia nicticans, Men. Bull. Acad. Pet. xvii. p. 217 (1859); id.
Schrenck's Reisen, Lep. p. 50, pl. 4. f. 4; Kirby, Cat. Het. p. 911.
Platarctia modesta, Pack. Proc. Ent. Soc. Philad. iii. p. 113 (1864); Kirby,
Cat. Het. p. 251.
Platarctia scudderii, Pack. Proc. Ent. Soc. Philad. iii. p. 113 (1864);
Kirby, Cat. Het. p. 251.
Eupsychoma geometrica, Grote, Proc. Ent. Soc. Philad. iv. p. 318, pl. 2.
f. 1 (1865); Kirby, Cat. Het. p. 251; Streck. Proc. Davenp. Soc. ii.
p. 273, pl. 9.
Nemeophila cespitis, Grote & Rob. Trans. Am. Ent. Soc. i. p. 337, pl. 6.
f. 43 (1868).
Nemeophila cichorii, Grote & Rob. Trans. Am. Ent. Soc. i. p. 338, pl. 6.
f. 44 (1868).
Nemeophila macromera, Butl. Trans. Ent. Soc. 1881, p. 5; Kirby, Cat. Het.
p. 251.
Nemeophila macromera, ab. leucomera, Butl. Trans. Ent. Soc. 1881, p. 5.
Nemeophila macromera, ab. melanomera, Butl. Trans. Ent. Soc. 1881, p. 5.
Nemeophila geddesi, Neum. Papilio, iii. p. 137 (1884); Kirby, Cat. Het.
p. 251.
Nemeophila selwynii, H. Edw. Can. Ent. xvii. p. 65 (1885); Kirby, Cat. Het.
p. 251.
Nemeophila plantaginis, ab. floccosa, Graeser, Berl. ent. Zeit. xxxii.
p. 115 (1888).
Nemeophila plantaginis, var. sifanica, Grum-Grshm. Hor. Soc. Ent. Ross. xxv.
p. 462 (1891); Kirby, Cat. Het. p. 911.
Nemeophila plantaginis, ab. melas, Christ. Deutsch. ent. Zeit., Lep. vi.
p. 88 (1893).
Nemeophila plantaginis, var. flava, Kilian, Soc. Ent. xii. p. 4 (1897).

♂. Head and thorax black; palpi orange; basal joint of antennae orange with
yellowish hair; sides of tegulae orange; patagia edged with yellowish;
femora striped with orange and fringed with orange hair; tibiae and tarsi
with whitish stripes; abdomen orange, with broad black stripe on dorsum,
lateral and sublateral series of points and ventral spots or bands. Fore
wing black; the basal half of costa orange; yellowish basal and antemedial
spots on costa; an irregular fascia below the cell extending just into cell
at middle; a discoidal spot usually connected with costa; an irregular
oblique postmedial band from costa to termen at vein 2, usually connected
with the fascia below the cell by a spur given off at vein 3; a band from
costa before apex, bent outwards at vein 6, then inwards and usually
joining the postmedial band at vein 4; cilia yellowish. Hind wing orange,
with black fascia on vein 1 to beyond middle; a fascia on median nervure
usually connected with the discoidal lunule; subterminal spots on veins 2
and 5 and usually a smaller spot on vein 7; an irregular terminal maculate
band, expanding into a large patch at middle and often interrupted near
veins 2 and 1.

Ab. 1. macromera. Fore wing with the markings whitish.
Ab. 2. caucasica. Fore wing with the markings as in female; abdomen and
hind wing strongly tinged with crimson.--Caucasus.
Ab. 3. hospita. Hind wing with the ground-colour white.
Ab. 4. matronalis. Hind wing black, with orange markings confined to
terminal area.
Ab. 5. melanomera. Hind wing black, with white markings on terminal
area.--Japan.
Ab. 6. Hind wing wholly black.
a. Fore wing with discoidal spot.
a'. nicticans. Fore wing with the submedian fascia and postmedial line
interrupted.--Siberia.
b'. geometrica. Fore wing with the submedian fascia and postmedial line
entire.--U.S.A.
b. scudderi. Fore wing without discoidal spot.--U.S.A.

♀. Palpi black; sides of tegulae crimson; patagia with yellowish patches;
legs black; abdomen black, with broad lateral crimson stripes and series of
black spots. Fore wing with the markings either crimson or orange at costa
and termen; cilia sometimes black. Hind wing crimson, with the black
fasciae confluent on basal area, or the crimson markings reduced to those
on terminal area.

Ab. 1. Hind wing with the markings orange-yellow.
a. petrosa. Fore wing with the markings whitish.--U.S.A.
b. cespitis. Fore wing with the markings orange-yellow.

Hab. Europe, Britain, France, Germany, Zeller Coll., Switzerland, Zeller
and Frey Colls., Norway, Zeller Coll.; Armenia; Caucasus, 1 ♂, 2 ♀, Zeller
Coll.; Amur, 5 ♂, 3 ♀; Turkestan, Kuku-Noor, 1 ♂; Japan, Oiwake (Pryer),
4 ♂, 2 ♀, (Fenton) 3 ♂, types leucomera, macromera, and melanomera; Alaska,
1 ♀, Grote Coll.; Br. Columbia; Canada; U.S.A., Colorado (Ld. Derby,
Cockerell), 4 ♂, 3 ♀, type petrosa, California. Exp. 36-46 millim.

Larva. Meyr. Brit. Lep. p. 41; Barrett, Lep. Brit. ii. p. 268, pl. 74.
f. 2.
Black; hair black or dark brown; on somites 4-6 bright red-brown, sometimes
reddish on sides; head black. Food-plants, Myosotis, Plantago, etc. 8-4.

Hampson, G. F. (1920). Catalogue of the Lepidoptera Phalaenae in the British
Museum, Supplement 2: p. 495.

2054. Parasemia plantaginis, insert:--

ab. rufa, Tutt, Ent. Rec. ix. p. 191 (1897).
Hind wing red.
(a) rufa-obsoleta, Tutt, Ent. Rec. ix. p. 191 (1897).
Hind wing with few black markings.
(b) rufa-matronalis, Tutt, Ent. Rec. ix. p. 191 (1897).
Hind wing heavily marked with black.
ab. lutea, Tutt, Ent. Rec. ix. p. 191 (1897).
♀. Hind wing bright yellow.
(a) lutea-obsoleta, Tutt, Ent. Rec. ix. p. 191, pl. v. f. 1 (1897).
Hind wing with few black markings.
ab. flava, Tutt, Ent. Rec. ix. p. 191 (1897).
♂. Hind wing pale yellow.
(a) flava-obsoleta, Tutt, Ent. Rec. ix. p. 191 (1897).
Hind wing with few black markings.
(b) flava-matronalis, Tutt, Ent. Rec. ix. p. 191 (1897).
Hind wing heavily marked with black.
ab. alba, Tutt, Ent. Rec. ix. p. 191 (1897).
Hind wing white.
(a) alba-obsoleta, Tutt, Ent. Rec. ix. p. 191 (1897).
Hind wing with few black markings.
(b) alba-matronalis, Tutt, Ent. Rec. ix. p. 191 (1897).
Hind wing heavily marked with black.

Seitz, A. (1910). Parasemia. In: Seitz, A. (ed.), The Macrolepidoptera of
the World, vol. 2, The Palaearctic Bombyces and Sphinges: pp. 81-82,
pl. 16 d, e, f. (German edition: Die Gross-Schmetterlinge der Erde 2:
81-82.)

P. plantaginis L. (16 d, e). This moth is extraordinarily variable.
Normally it has black forewing in both sexes, with moderately broad, ivory
yellow bands. The hindwing is yellow in the ♂, with an irregular marginal
band which is often interrupted, and 2 or 3 submarginal spots. The basal
portion of the hindwing bears black streaks at the margin of the cell, and
before the anal margin. In the ♀ the hindwing is red above with the base
strongly black. It occurs in all temperate countries of the Northern
Hemisphere, but is often absent in the plains of the southern districts,
being found in the plains only in the North. From North Scandinavia to
Andalusia and the Caucasus, from England to Japan and in America in the
West of the United States. Numerous aberrations have been found and named,
which often occur predominantly, often only exceptionally among typical
specimens. In the Alps especially very different forms occur in the same
locality: ab. hospita Schiff. (16 e) is a form of the ♂, often occurring
also in the hills, in which the ground-colour of the hindwing is pure white
instead of orange yellow. The white ground-colour may also have much
increased in quantity, the dark margins of the cell being obsolescent; this
is the case in ab. bicolor Raetz. In the alpine ab. matronalis Frr. (16 e),
the hindwing is entirely black with the exception of some light submarginal
markings, the bands of the forewing also being narrower. In ab. elegans
Raetz. (16 e) in which the light markings of both wings are often reduced
to slight traces, the ground-colour of the hindwing is white. -- In the ♀♀
the colour of the hindwing may be yellow (flavipennis) or pink
(roseipennis) instead of red, or may also gradually change from yellow in
the basal half to red in the outer half. In ab. albulae Kilian the
ivory-yellow of the forewing is strongly tinged with reddish. ab. subalpina
Schaw. forms a transition to matronalis, the basal half of the hindwing
being black, the outer half yellow (♂) or red (♀). ab. borussia Schaw. is
the form of subalpina corresponding to hospita, the ground-colour of the
hindwing being white. In ab. nycticans Men. (= melas Christ.) (16 e) the
black is only slightly increased on the forewing, but so much so on the
hindwing that its upper side presents a perfectly uniform black surface. If
both wings are uniformly black we have the rare ab. raetzeri Schaw. Of
other aberrations we mention: ab. nigrociliata Schaw., which is the name for
all specimens with black fringes. ab. henrichoviensis Schultz are yellow
specimens in which the white streaks and band of the forewing are more or
less confluent. ab. brunnescens Schaw. (16 e) has in the ♂ the yellow
colour of the hindwing suffused with brown, and in ab. rufa Tutt the
hindwing is red. -- Of course, several aberrational characters may be found
in one specimen, so that double names result, such as lutea-obsoleta Tutt,
in which the central markings are absent, while the ground-colour of the
hindwing is yellow. -- In the Asiatic districts of its area the moth
differs from the European forms, but does not vary individually to the same
extent as, e. g., in many localities in the higher Alps. -- In North Asia,
especially Kamschatka, Amurland, Central Siberia, the white colour of the
forewing is nearly always increased, the ground-colour of the hindwing
being white (♂) or yellow (♀); this is the form floccosa Graes. -- In
Japanese specimens the markings of the forewing are sometimes snowy white
instead of greenish white or ivory; Butler names such specimens macromera
(from which he moreover separates an ab. leucomera). However, this variety
occurs aberratively also outside Japan in other localities of the
Palearctic region. On the other hand, ab. melanomera Butl., also described
from Japan, are darker specimens which have the ground-colour of the
hindwing white in the outer half and stand between hospita and borussia.
-- The white may be so much increased that the black is reduced to narrow
marginal spots, the wing being otherwise quite white; this is the case in
ab. confluens Schaw. (16 f). -- In Tibet occurs a constant, rather small
form, sifanica Gr.-Grsh. (16 f), here the ground-colour of the hindwing is
alike in both sexes, and in the cell of the forewing there is an oval light
spot. -- Very similar is altaica Stgr. i. l. (16 f), from the Altai, a
little larger, but easily distinguished by the hindwing, which is scarcely
more extended black in the ♀ than in the ♂. -- The opposite is the case in
♂♂ from the Orkneys, in which the edges of the cell and the submarginal
spots of the hindwing are so extended and the ground-colour of the latter
so dark that the ♂ might be mistaken for a ♀. I call this form insularum
form. nov. (16 f). -- In caucasica Men. (16 f) the light inner marginal
stripe of the forewing is interrupted in the centre by the dark
ground-colour. The hindwing is slightly angulate, red, but also sometimes
yellow (caucasica flava). -- It must also be mentioned that a series of
forms of plantaginis have been erected for North American specimens, and
are sometimes treated as varieties of a separate species, sometimes as
varieties of plantaginis, e. g. modesta, petrosa, cichorii, selwynii,
scudderi, geddesi, geometrica, caespitis, which are dealt with in the
American part (Vol. 6). -- Larva black at both ends, with dark hair, the
median rings reddish brown with foxy hairs, long bristles posteriorly; head
black. From the autumn until May, on low-growing plants. Pupa dark brown
with strong bristles posteriorly; in a loose cocoon. The moths are on the
wing in June, in the higher Alps until August.