Theresimima ampellophaga (Bayle-Barelle, 1808)

Host plants:
Vitis vinifera and Parthenocissus sp.

Habitat:
Theresimima ampellophaga inhabits today mostly feral wine stocks, rambled walls and hedges and houses and gardens that are overgrown with Parthenocissus. It has largely disappeared from vineyards in most cases due to the increased use of poison.

Life cycle:
The caterpillar overwinters and is mature in May or June. I met many half-grown to mature caterpillars in Samos in early May 2009. The half-grown caterpillars web shelters between the sprouting leaves, in which they retire to rest and especially moult. In May 2011, I observed larvae on the coast in northern Greece near Mount Olympus and in May 2025 on Ikaria island. Pupation takes place in a whitish cocoon between leaves or in the litter. The moths fly between late May to July and again in a partial second generation between late July and early September. Oviposition occurs in batches on the lower side of leaves. The half-grown larva hibernates.

Endangerment factors:
In the past Theresimima ampellophaga occurred in the whole Mediterranean and became partly harmful in the vineyards. But Theresimima ampellophaga has become extinct in many regions as a result of the poison use in agriculture. Today it is found mainly on a few eastern Aegean islands and Turkey, as well as parts of the western Asia (again, with decrease trend). They deserve protection today. In Samos, Lesbos and Ikaria, I met Theresimima ampellophaga still in several places, e.g. on Parthenocissus sp. in restaurants on the coast as well as in the mountains on feral wine.