About Rhyparia purpurata (Linnaeus, 1758)
Diacrisia purpurata, commonly called the purple tiger, is a moth species that belongs to the subfamily Arctiinae. This species was first formally described by Carl Linnaeus in the 10th edition of his work Systema Naturae, published in 1758. Its distribution covers Europe, Anatolia, Syria, Transcaucasus, and Central Asia, where it occurs mainly in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. It is also found in southern Siberia, Mongolia, the Amur Region, northern China, Korea, and Honshu, Japan. Forewing length in this species measures 18–22 mm for males and 22–25 mm for females. Adult moths fly from June to August, with flight timing varying by location. The larvae of this moth feed on plants of the genus Calluna, and will sometimes feed on other herbaceous plants and deciduous trees. Phylogenetic research published by Rönkä et al. in 2016 reclassified all species from the genus Rhyparia, including this species, moving them into the genus Diacrisia; this species was originally described under the name Rhyparia purpurata.
