Catocala lupina Herrich-Schäffer, 1851

Host plants:
The caterpillar lives on narrow-leaved willow species. Salix purpurea might be the most important larval host plant.

Habitat:
Catocala lupina primarily inhabits gravel bars in wide rearrangement areas of mountain rivers. In addition, even gravel-rich slopes and similar sites with bushes of the larval host plant are populated. Important is the presence of small, heavy sunlit bushes of 0.5 to 1.5m height on open sand or gravel in air-humid conditions.

Life cycle:
The egg hibernates. The young caterpillars hatch in April or May. I found larvae in the first and second instar on small bushes along a mountain stream in the northern Greek Pindos in mid-May 2011. The young caterpillars can be tapped. The older caterpillars (June/early July) hide during the day inside the bushes at branches near the ground and are betrayed by bare shoots. The moths fly from July to early September.

Endangerment factors:
Catocala lupina is threatened in parts of their range (for example, in the western Alps) by channeling and other aquatic measures.

Remarks:
Catocala lupina occurs in Europe only locally in Italy (Valle d'Aosta across the Italian Alps and the Apennines to Southern Italy, locally in northeastern Italy) and the Balkans (Albania, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Northern Greece). Additionally, Catocala lupina occurs from the southeastern Ukraine and Asia Minor to western Siberia. Perhaps the moths will be also found in parts of France bordering Italy.