Page 617 - The Book of Caterpillars: A Life-Size Guide to Six Hundred Species From Around the World

MOTH CATERPILLARS

FAMILY Noctuidae
DISTRIBUTION Europe, from Iberia, southern England, and southern Scandinavia
across Russia and southern Siberia to Sakhalin Island; Morocco
and Algeria, the Middle East, and across western and central Asia
to northern China and Japan
HABITAT Warm, open, dry habitats, including gardens
HOST PLANTS Carnation (Dianthus caryophyllus), Sweet-william (Dianthus
barbatus), and pinks (Dianthus spp.); also campion (Silene spp.),
including Bladder Campion (Silene vulgaris)

NOTE Caterpillar that hatches among ower heads, hiding elsewhere
when larger
CONSERVATION STATUS Not evaluated

ADULT WINGSPAN
⅞–1 ⁄ in (22–30 mm)
CATERPILLAR LENGTH
1 ⁄ –1 ⁄ in (30–34 mm)
HADENA COMPTA
VARIED CORONET 615

([DENIS & SCHIFFERMÜLLER], 1775)

The Varied Coronet caterpillar hatches from a pale brown
egg laid singly inside a ower of the host plant. It feeds on the

unripe seeds, living at rst inside the seedpods. When too large

to be concealed within them, it hides by day on the ground and
climbs up to feed at night. The pupa is formed in a cocoon in the
ground, and it overwinters in this stage. There is one generation
of caterpillars in the north of its range and two in the south, from
June until early September.

Although the caterpillar often occurs on cultivated Dianthus
plants, it does not appear to be considered a pest, perhaps

because it feeds largely in the ower heads after the owers have

faded. The Hadena compta larva is similar to several others in the
genus Hadena and it often shares the host plant with the Lychnis
moth (H. bicruris). While both have a dorsal, brown stripe in

the nal instar, in the Lychnis this is usually formed into larger,

well-de ned chevrons. The Varied Coronet caterpillar is pale gray
brown or tawny, nely and irregularly mottled
with darker brown. Along the back, there is
a broad, slightly blurred, dark brown stripe,
sometimes formed into a series of blotches
or small chevrons. Each segment has a pair
of dark dots. The sides are mottled and much
paler below the dark-ringed spiracles.

Actual size