Autographa jota (Linnaeus, 1758)

Host plants:
The caterpillar is polyphagous and feeds especially on Pulmonaria, Lamium, Urtica and other herbs and shrubs (according to literature often Lonicera).

Habitat:
Autographa jota occurs especially in the mountains (Alps and the lower mountain ranges as for example the Swabian Alb). Here it inhabits rather fresh hillside forests where the caterpillars can be found along trails. I found, for example, a caterpillar on Pulmonaria obscura on a wooded steep slope of the eastern Swabian Alb near Unterkochen in April 2002. In October 2010, I tapped caterpillars from herbaceous fringes in damp, open woods with occurrence of Coenonympha hero on the eastern Swabian Alb.

Life cycle:
The caterpillar overwinters and is then observed from late March to late May. The moths fly from mid-June until the first half of August.

Endangerment: regionally endangered or decreasing

Endangerment factors:
Autographa jota is endangered in some places due to excessive dark forest management. Clearings, forest edges and moist meadows in the forests must not be planted!

Remarks:
The distribution extends across Europe (in the south only in the mountains) and temperate Asia to the Pacific coast.

Hints on determination:
To distinguish the similar A. pulchrina see in that species text.