Fathead morpheus

The length of the front wing is 15-18 mm. Wingspan up to 3 cm. The upper side of the wings is dark brown in color with light spots at the apex of the wings and on the outer margins of the hind wings. In females, light-colored apical spots are larger and brighter than in males. The underside of the wings of both sexes with characteristic large white spots. Antenna with fusiform club. The wings are brown above with small yellow strokes and with two rows of white, in a black fringing, spots on a yellow background on the underside of the hind wings

Inhabits the temperate zone of Eurasia . In Europe, it occurs in the forest belt from the Baltic countries and southern Finland to the Southern Urals. In the Baltic states it is a local species; in Poland and Belarus it lives in most of the countries. It occurs in southern Slovakia, western regions of Hungary and Romania. On the territory of Ukraine, the range covers the forest-steppe zone, where it is found along the forest valleys of large rivers. Being quite common in the north of the country, this species to the south is becoming more local and rare, and almost never occurs in the steppe zone. No more than a dozen small isolated populations are known from the steppe zone of Ukraine, confined mainly to the Dnieper valley ^[2] . It lives in the Western Caucasus in the region of Sochi. It is common throughout the south of Siberia, in the Amur Region and Primorye. It also lives in Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Northern China.

Butterflies inhabit glades, moist forest edges, floodplain meadows, swampy roadsides, banks of rivers and streams, the outskirts of sphagnum bogs, dry sand copses. It is found in the Caucasus in floodplain high-grass meadows along the banks of flat and mountain rivers at heights of up to 1100 m above sea level.

Develops in one generation. The flight time of butterflies is from the first decade of June (in the south of Ukraine - from the end of May) until the third decade of July - early August. Butterflies are characterized by a peculiar characteristic "jumping" slow flight.

After mating, the females lay their eggs on the stems or leaves of the food plants of the caterpillars. Egg development lasts about 10 days. Caterpillars live in tubes of folded leaves. The caterpillar stage runs from late July to May. Caterpillars leave their shelters extremely rarely, and they also winter in them. Often the caterpillars eat the tube from the inside, and then build new ones. They pupate in May next year in a tube of folded sheet or several leaves, as well as in grooves of leaves pulled together with several silk threads. Pupa stage about 20 days.

Fodder plants of caterpillars: short-legged , gray-headed reed , grassland , cotton grass , blue lily , canary , annual bluegrass, bluegrass.

• Heteropterus morpheus (Pallas, 1771) - Fathead morpheus

• Lvovsky A. L. , Morgun D. V. Qualifiers for the flora and fauna of Russia. Issue 8 // Lepidoptera Lepidoptera of Eastern Europe. - M .: Partnership of scientific publications of KMK, 2007. - 443 p. - 2000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-87317-362-4 .