Species Therion circumflexum

Therion circumflexum (Linnaeus, 1758)

Therion callosum (Shestakov, 1923)

Therion curticorne Bauer, 1967

Therion japonicum (Cameron, 1906)

Therion laricis (Matsumura, 1926)

Therion nigroscutellatum (Hellen, 1926)

Therion nigroscutellatum (Uchida, 1928)

Therion nigrum (Provancher, 1879)

Therion nipponicum (Uchida, 1928)

Therion occidentale (Cresson, 1879)

Therion ramidulum (Christ, 1791)

Therion rubropictum (Ulbricht, 1926)

Therion unicolor (Ratzeburg, 1844)

Therion circumflexum (Linnaeus, 1758)

Body length of over 20 mm, one of our largest species(1)

Very large size. Coloration: head black (female with only orbits and central stripe yellow, male with face entirely yellow), thorax black with at most some red spots, wings light brown, coxae black, trochanters red, first 3 abdominal segments strongly red.(1) Anterior of T1 black as opposed to entirely amber as in T. fuscipenne.(2) Hind tibia longer than combined length of hind femur plus trochanters.(1)

♀

♂

widespread in some parts of the Palearctic & Nearctic realms (3)(4)

oak-chaparral, willows(5)

Adults fly from mid-June to September in Commanster, Luxembourg.(6)

Adult females search out caterpillar hosts using both tactile and olfactory cues. She uses her antennae to feel the surface to determine that the integument is wrinkled with no patches of setae present, which indicate an appropriate host. A female will only oviposit in hosts that meet these requirements and will reject any other species, even in the prolonged absence of hosts with the proper tactile cues.(5)