Hypena proboscidalis

Technical description and variation

The wingspan is 25–38 mm. Forewing grey brown with numerous dark transverse striae, and with a brownish yellow suffusion in the females; the lines dark brown; the inner curved or bent in middle; the outer oblique, nearly straight, slightly incurved at costa, internallyshaded with dark brown; the subterminal cloudy and partially interrupted, above middle marked with black white-tipped dashes, followed by a brown cloud, the subapical edge of which is oblique; hindwing pale greyish. As a rule most females are brownish, — ab. brunnea Tutt, —- most males grey without the brown; - the form deleta Stgr., from the Altai Mts., Amurland, and Kamschatka, is paler, the forewing yellowish, sprinkled with brown, with less distinct markings; - tatorhina Btlr.[full species [[Hypena tatorhina]] Butler, 1879 from Japan, is small, grey in both sexes, with dingy fuscous suffusion, and a black spot in cell; the hindwing fuscous; - from W. China (Omei-shan and Tatsienlu) comes a form. — subsp. flexilinea subsp. nov.[Warren] dark grey brown in the female, with the transverse striae and the shades preceding the lines dark smoky fuscous, the outer line visibly bent above middle;in the males the dark shading is slight: --a similar but smaller form - indicalis Guen., occurs in the Goorais Valley. Kashmir, where the outer line has a tendency to be elbowed on both folds, and the male, which is quite without dark shading, has a small black dot in cell and a large black spot at its end.

Biology

The moth flies in two generations from May to September^[1].

Larva velvety green; dorsal line darker green, the subdorsal lines paler; head, legs, and tubercles green.The larvae feed on hop, nettle and ground-elder.

Habitats include deciduous, mixed and coniferous forests, rivers, hedges and gardens and parkland.