Xanthia togata (Esper, 1788)

Host plants:
The caterpillars live at first in catkins of willows (Salix), with which they then fall to the ground. They complete development on soil level where there are usually many old catkins that are eaten by the larvae. On the ground also a polyphagous life on herbs and young woods is possible.
The used willow species is most often Salix caprea, S. cinerea or S. viminalis.

Habitat:
Xanthia togata inhabits all possible willow sites. So it occurs in wetlands and on lake shores as well as on xerothermic standing sallows in quarries on the Swabian Alb, where they can usually be obtained with numerous Xanthia icteritia from samples of the kittens. It is more a species of altitudes above 400m in southern Germany.

Life cycle:
The eggs overwinter in rows between 2 and 10 eggs in the gap between flower bud and twig. The young caterpillars drill in February or March into the developing kitten. They live in it until they fall to the ground with the kittens or until they have eaten it completely. On the ground, they complete their development until late May and there feed in my opinion the numerous kittens lying around and change only occasionally to other plants. Pupation occurs in the soil after weeks of prepupal rest and the moths fly from late August to late October, rarely even in early November.

Endangerment factors:
Xanthia togata is not endangered in principle. Nevertheless, they lose countless reproduction opportunities by still meticulously executed removals of economically worthless softwoods by our forestry.

Remarks:
The distribution is Holarctic (Europe, northern Asia and North America).