Parocneria detrita (Esper, 1785)

Host plants:
The caterpillars are found on oak bushes (Quercus).

Habitat:
Parocneria detrita inhabits warm dry forests, sandy heaths and grove-rich grasslands. Important are large-scale occurrences of young oak bushes. I met the mature larvae in grassland/dry forest complexes with several square-meters oak bush patches under 1m hight in Northern Greece in May 2010.

Life cycle:
The moths fly in June or July. I recorded adults and eggs in oak bushes in late June 2013. The caterpillars overwinter and become mature in May. They are easy to tapp from the bushes.

Endangerment: threatened with extinction

Endangerment factors:
Parocneria detrita has been extirpated in Central Europe already largely by habitat loss. It loses habitat also in the southeast by human expansion (agricultural and forestry intensification, overbuilding), but is here still more widespread.

Remarks:
Parocneria detrita was observed from Central Europe (east Germany, South Tyrol, here each presumably largely extinct) to the east (southern Russia) and southeast (Balkans, Turkey). In southeastern France a small isolated distribution area is known.