Adscita geryon


Adscita geryon, the cistus forester, is a moth of the family Zygaenidae. It is found in southern and central Europe, east to Turkey. It is also present in Great Britain.Hans-Josef Weidemann, Jochen Köhler: Nachtfalter, Spinner und Schwärmer, S. 476ff, Naturbuch-Verlag, Augsburg 1996, It was first described by the German entomologist Jacob Hübner in 1813.
The wingspan is 20–25 mm. The larvae can be found from July to May of the following year.

Subspecies

  • Adscita geryon geryon
  • Adscita geryon acutafibra Verity, 1946
  • ''Adscita geryon orientalis''

    [Etymology]

Adscita from adscitus, meaning adopted or enrolled was originally a Carl Linnaeus name. Linnaeus divided the hawk-moths into four groups, three of which he called the true hawk-moths and the fourth, ″a group of seven hangers-on, in default of a better position″. In 1783 Retzius was the first to use Adscita as a genus and he kept two of these moths in the Adscita, i.e. statices and filipendulae. Hubner gave the moth the specific name geryon, which refers to Geryon a mythical three-headed monster killed by Heracles.