Hadena magnolii (Boisduval, 1829)

Host plants:
Silene nutans and other Silene species.

Habitat:
Hadena magnolii inhabits rocky slopes, scrublands and grasslands and also occurs in rocky forest edges.

Life cycle:
Hadena magnolii generally has only a single generation from late April to early July. I collected young larvae in Northern Greece already in the first week of May together with Silene sp., in Andalusia in late June.

If the host plant dies out ahead of time, the larvae obviously are able to aestivate in order to wait for rainfalls in early autumn. So I found many larvae in Northern Greece near SDiatista in totally exsiccated fruits of higher Silene plants. Here they were also protected from the heat at soil level. The began feeding again after some days when fresh food was provided in breeding.

Endangerment: strongly endangered

Endangerment factors:
Hadena magnolii is threatened in the north (Black Forest) by reforestation and other affections to their small-scale sites. In the south, the situation is not yet critical.

Remarks:
The distribution spans the entire Mediterranean region and eastwards to Asia (to about Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan). To the north it reaches Switzerland, southern Austria and even the southern Black Forest in Germany.