Zygaena occitanica

Zygaena occitanica, the Provence burnet, is a moth of the Zygaenidae family. It is found from the Algarve and southern Spain up to the eastern parts of the Cantabrian Mountains then to southern Russia and the Caucasus and east to the western fringe of Central Asia.

Zygaena occitanica
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Family:	Zygaenidae
Genus:	Zygaena
Species:	Z. occitanica
Binomial name
Zygaena occitanica (Villers, 1789)
Synonyms
Sphinx occitanica Villers, 1789 Zygaena valenciaca Reiss, 1965 Zygaena tourrettica Reiss, 1953 Zygaena azurensis Reiss, 1958 Zygaena albicans Reiss, 1965 Zygaena albicans Staudinger, 1861 Zygaena albipunctata Vartian, 1960

It is only the western representative of the carniolica series. Spot 6 is always pure white; the hindwing, moreover, is broadly edged with black and the abdomen is without a belt.albicans Staudinger has the forewing almost white, with red and some black spots, the white edge of the thorax being shining white and the abdomen posteriorly all red.— In iberica Stgr. [Z. occitanica ssp. arragonica Holik & Sheljuzhko, 1956 ] (8i) the 6 spot is reduced to a narrow white speck, the spots 1 - 5 of the forewing being very thinly edged with white; the ground-colour of the forewing black; the posterior half of the abdomen usually red ; from Catalonia.If the abdominal belt is absent , which happens sometimes in the male, we have ab. azona Spuler [ ab. of Z. occitanica ssp. arragonica Holik & Sheljuzhko, 1956 ]. — ab. disjuncta Spuler is based on specimens of iberica in which the spots of the forewing are distinctly and widely separated. There exist almost all gradations between these forms, and by naming all of them the series of aberrations would be considerably enlarged.[1] The wingspan is about 23 mm.