About Zygaena occitanica Villers, 1789
Zygaena occitanica, commonly known as the Provence burnet, is a moth species belonging to the Zygaenidae family. Its distribution ranges from the Algarve and southern Spain, up through the eastern Cantabrian Mountains, to southern Russia, the Caucasus, and eastward to the western edge of Central Asia. This species is the only western representative of the carniolica series. Key identifying features for the species include that spot 6 is always pure white, the hindwing has a broad black edge, and the abdomen lacks a belt. The form albicans Staudinger has an almost entirely white forewing marked with red and black spots, a shining bright white edge to the thorax, and a fully red posterior abdomen. The subspecies iberica Stgr. (currently classified as Zygaena occitanica ssp. arragonica Holik & Sheljuzhko, 1956) has spot 6 reduced to a small narrow white speck, spots 1 to 5 on the forewing have only very thin white edging, the forewing ground color is black, and the posterior half of the abdomen is usually red. This subspecies is found in Catalonia. The aberration ab. azona Spuler (an aberration of Zygaena occitanica ssp. arragonica) occurs when the abdominal belt is absent, a variation that sometimes appears in male individuals. The aberration ab. disjuncta Spuler describes specimens of iberica where the forewing spots are clearly and widely separated from one another. Nearly all intermediate gradations exist between these different forms, and naming every single gradation would create a very large expanded series of aberrations. The wingspan of Zygaena occitanica is approximately 23 mm.
