Phlogophora interrupta (Warren, 1905)

Host plants:
Primarily the larvae feed on various ferns, e.g. Dryopteris, Osmunda. I observed one egg and a few larvae also on Rubus.

Habitat:
Phlogophora interrupta inhabits fern-rich, preferably wet places including dark, allochthonous coniferous forests, stream cuts, laurel woodland and open Atlantic heathland with grasses, mosses, Calluna and ferns.

Life cycle:
Adults and larvae are recorded year-round, but presumably with peaks of moths in autumn and spring. Oviposition occurs singly on the lower side of the fern leaves (app. 40 own field records), where the young, green larvae live, too. They are thus easily beaten. The older and mostly brownish larvae rest in the litter or superficially buried in the soil, often also under mosses, and climb the host plant only at night, then feeding often from the upper leaf surface. They are easily searched with a lamp.

Endangerment factors:
Phlogophora interrupta has already suffered great loss of area, e.g. in Sao Miguel, because of the extreme extension of EU-funded cattle pastures, that can not be settled even by this species. Because Phlogophora interrupta can cope with various other still available habitats, it is despite this fact still the least endangered endemic Phlogophora of the Azores and quite common in appropriate places.

Remarks:
Phlogophora interrupta is endemic to the central (ssp. interrupta) and eastern (ssp. jarmilae) Azores (Portugal). In the western group (e.g. Flores) it is substituted by P. kruegeri.

Literature:
Wagner (2015 b): A contribution to the knowledge of the larval ecology of the Azorean Phlogophora (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) with taxonomic notes on the complex of P. interrupta (P. interrupta jarmilae Saldaitis & Ivinskis, 2006, stat. rev.).- Nachr. entomol. Ver. Apollo, N.F. 36 (2/3): 80–92.