Shargacucullia scrophulariae, the water betony, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It is found throughout Europe, east to Turkey.
Technical description and variation
C. scrophulariae Cap. (27 h). Not quite so broad as verbasci, the forewing paler and duller in coloration; the dark brown costal streak overlaid with grey and so paler than those on inner margin; the ground colour below median hardly paler, not strikingly whitish; hindwing much as in verbasci.Warren. W. in Seitz, A. Ed., 1914 Die Großschmetterlinge der Erde, Verlag Alfred Kernen, Stuttgart Band 3: Abt. 1, Die Großschmetterlinge des palaearktischen Faunengebietes, Die palaearktischen eulenartigen Nachtfalter, 1914 The wingspan is about 45 mm.
Biology The moth flies from May to August depending on the location.
The larvae feed on Scrophularia umbrosa, Scrophularia nodosa, Scrophularia auriculata, Scrophularia canina, Verbascum lychnitis and Verbascum thapsus.
Similar species Shargacucullia scrophulariae is difficult to certainly distinguish from these congeners. See Townsend et al.Martin C. Townsend, Jon Clifton and Brian Goodey (2010). British and Irish Moths: An Illustrated Guide to Selected Difficult Species. (covering the use of genitalia characters and other features) Butterfly Conservation. Shargacucullia verbasci (Linnaeus, 1758) Shargacucullia lychnitis (Rambur, 1833)
References
External links
Water Betony (Cucullia scrophulariae) on UKmoths Fauna Europaea Cucullia (Shargacucullia) scrophulariae (Denis & Schiffermüller, 1775) Lepiforum.de