Hyposoter carbonarius

Hyposoter carbonarius (Ratzeburg, 1844)

Campoplex carbonaria Ratzeburg, 1844: type ♀, lost (Horstmann, 2013).

syn. Anilasta pectinata Thomson, 1887: Horstmann (2013)

syn. Campoplex melanarius Holmgren, 1860: Horstmann (2013)

Horstmann (2013) records that the type material of this species is lost, but states that the species is easily identifiable from a combination of the original description and host records given for it by Ratzeburg (Orgyia antiqua (Linnaeus) and Dicallomera fascelina, (Linnaeus)). It is a comparatively large and robust species, much more so than any other similar species. Although Horstmann’s draft key separated it on the basis that the maxillary palps are black rather than yellow, which is indeed usually the case, we have seen a number of specimens, mostly males, with yellow palps, so that this criterion is not infallible. Horstmann’s original key has been altered to accomodate this.

The hosts for H. carbonarius are recorded by Shaw et al. (2016) as several species of low-feeding heathland Erebidae (Lymantriinae), Dicallomera fascelina (Linnaeus), Orgyia antiqua (Linnaeus) and O. antiquoides (Ḩber). There is a single reared male in NHMUK, from Dicallomera fascelina. In addition, Kukal and Kevan (1987) provide an account of the effect of parasitism by this species (as H. pectinatus) on the lymantriine moth Gynaephora groenlandica (Wocke) at the limits of vegetation in the high Canadian arctic. We have seen specimens from the UK, Germany and the Netherlands. Its reported range includes most northern and central European countries, Greenland and Canada. The few captured specimens we have seen were taken in May and June; however, Shaw et al. (2016) record more than one annual generation in N.W. Europe, with the winter being passed in the hibernating larva of D. fascelina.