Heliothis nubigera Herrich-Schäffer, 1851

Matov, Alexej, Zahiri, Reza & Holloway, Jeremy D., 2008, The Heliothinae of Iran (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), Zootaxa 1763, pp. 1-37 : 7

Heliothis nubigera Herrich-Schäffer, 1851

Pl. 1, fig. 3; male genitalia Pl. 4, fig. 22.

Heliothis nubigera Herrich-Schäffer, 1851 , Syst. Bearb. Schmett. Eur. 2: 366 (TL.: [ Turkey], Asia Minor).

Synonymy: Heliothis perigeoides Moore, 1881 ; Chloridea nubigera var. deserta Sohn-Rethel, 1929 ; Heliothis nubigera subsp. minutier Thurner, 1938.

References: Bienert 1870 ( Heliothis Nubigera ); Christoph 1873 ( Heliothis Nubiger ); Schwingenschuss 1938 ( Chloridea nubigera ); Reisser 1958 ( Chloridea nubigera ); Modarres Awal 1994, 1997 ( Chloridea nubigera ), Hacker & Kautt 1999 ( Heliothis nubigera ); Modarres Awal 1999 ( Heliothis nubigera ), Gutleb & Wiesser 2001 ( Heliothis nubigera ); Hacker 2001 ( Heliothis nubigera ), Ebert & Hacker 2002 ( Heliothis nubigera ).

Bionomics: Multivoltine, probably bivoltine with summer aestivation (Kravchenko et al. 2005). H. nubigera inhabits eremic and arid areas of the steppe, semi-desert and desert zone as well as subtropical and tropical areas on elevation 0-3300 m, and extends from there to other regions to the north and south. In North Africa, and the Near and Middle East, it is known from all countries as a common migratory moth. Moth flying from February to November. Larvae are polyphagous, feed on 12 species of herbaceous plants and shrubs of 9 botanical families, prefer Solanaceae and Fabaceae . They are more frequent on wild herbs than on agricultural or garden crops, unlike H. peltigera and Helicoverpa armigera .

Distribution: Afrotropic-West Palaearctic. Europe (in the north – migrant), North and East Africa, Caucasus, Transcaucasia, Central Asia, India. – In Iran occurs everywhere (Pl. 10, fig. 51).

Material examined: 261 specimens from provinces West Azerbaijan, East Azerbaijan, Ardebil, Mazandaran, Golestan, Khorasan, Yazd, Semnan, Tehran, Qom, Markazi, Zanjan, Kermanshah, Esfahan, Kohkiluyeh va Boyer-Ahmad, Lorestan, Khuzestan, Fars, Kerman, Bushehr, Hormozgan and Sistan va Baluchestan, collected between 12.II to 12.XI on elevations from 0 to 3300 m.