Archanara sparganii (Esper, 1790)


Archanara sparganii: Adult [S] Archanara sparganii: Adult (e.l. eastern Swabian Alb 2008) [S] Archanara sparganii: Adult (e.l. eastern Swabian Alb 2008) [S] Archanara sparganii: Adult (e.l. eastern Swabian Alb 2008) [S] Archanara sparganii: Larva (eastern Swabian Alb, 2008) [M] Archanara sparganii: Larva (eastern Swabian Alb 2008) [M] Archanara sparganii: Larva [M] Archanara sparganii: Pupa (eastern Swabian Alb, July 2008) [M] Archanara sparganii: Pupa [M] Archanara sparganii: Pupa [M] Archanara sparganii: Pupa [M] Archanara sparganii: Habitat: Typha latifolia in a small swamp (Swabian Alb, Southern Germany, Heidenheim, 2008) [N]

Host plants:
The caterpillars live inside the stems of Typha, more rarely also Sparganium, Iris or possibly other marsh plants.

Habitat:
Archanara sparganii inhabits reeds (Typha stocks, etc.), that can be located in siltation zones of rivers and lakes, in ditches, wet meadows or in other marshy places.

Life cycle:
The egg hibernates. The larva lives until July and is sometimes betrayed by stunted growth and dying inner leaves of the host plant. The pupation takes place within the stem (head up). The moths fly from mid-July and especially in August.

Endangerment: endangered

Endangerment factors:
Archanara sparganii is threatened by the sharp decline of reed communities due to the destruction of wetlands (groundwater drawdown due to infrastructure or for drink water extraction, agricultural intensification, afforestation and overbuilding). However, it is sometimes able to cope with relatively small areas of less than 100 square meters for a certain time. Currently it seems to spread a bit in Southern Germany as own observations in small wetland remnants on the eastern Swabian Alb suggest.

Remarks:
The distribution stretches from Europe to Japan, but is only very local in Europe, missing in the extreme north and south.



Archanara geminipuncta | Archanara neurica 
German version / deutsche Version