Hepialus humuli
(Linnaeus, 1758) · speciesAt a glance
Sources8 archives
Databases and archives Hepialus humuli's data was compiled from.
WikipediaWikimedia Foundation8 languages↗
BioWikiNetmultilingual Wikipediamultilingual↗
GBIFGlobal Biodiversity Information Facility66 707 records↗
ENAEuropean Nucleotide Archive · EMBL-EBI237 eDNA detections↗
BOLD SystemsCentre for Biodiversity Genomics234 specimens↗
Open Tree of LifeOpenTreephylogeny backbone↗
Catalogue of LifeCOLtaxonomy↗
GLoBIGlobal Biotic Interactionsbiotic interactions↗Every layer below draws on the sources above — open one to explore it, or use ← → to move between tabs.
The ghost moth or ghost swift (Hepialus humuli) is a moth of the family Hepialidae. It is common throughout Europe, except for in the far south-east. Female ghost moths are larger than males, and exhibit sexual dimorphism with their differences in size and wing color. The adults fly from June to August and are attracted to light. The species overwinters as a larva. The term ghost moth is sometimes used as a general term for all hepialids. The ghost moth gets its name from the hovering display flight of the male, sometimes slowly rising and falling, over open ground to attract females. In a suitable location several males may display together in a lek. The larva is whitish and maggot-like and feeds underground on the roots of a variety of wild and cultivated plants (see list below). The species can be an economically significant pest in forest nurseries.
No narrative description available for this taxon yet.
Diet & foraging2
A DNA barcode is a short, standardised stretch of genes that works like a fingerprint — enough to tell one species from another. Below is the molecular trace Hepialus humuli has left across the world's sequence archives.
At a glance
★ the standard DNA barcode for this group — the short region actually read to tell this species apart. The rest are extra genes sequenced along the way.
How far back this lineage goes — and how we know. Everything here is measured in Ma, short for “mega-annum”: millions of years ago. The chart reads left to right like a calendar of the Earth, from the deep past on the left to today at the right edgetop to bottom like a core drilled through the Earth, from the deep past at the top down to today at the bottom.
At a glance
When this lineage existed
How to read this: the coloured strip along the bottomdown the left is the geological calendar — the standard epochs (Pliocene, Pleistocene…) every museum uses, shown so you can see which chapter of Earth's history this lineage lived in. This lineage is a young one, so the strip is zoomed in to epochs — the finer subdivisions inside a period. The orange marker is the DNA clock: DNA accumulates mutations at a roughly steady rate, so comparing this species' DNA with its relatives estimates when the lineage split off — independently of any fossil.
Record type66 707 records
Origin
Range
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Museum / Voucheredphysical evidence
Backed by a physical specimen — a herbarium sheet, sample or voucher held in a collection. “Vouchered” means supported by material evidence, not just an observation.
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Holding institutions20 of 57 geolocated
Institutions and collections holding physical, vouchered specimens of this species — click a row to fly to it on the map.
| Institution | Specimens |
|---|---|
| DanishLepidopterologicalSocietylocation not on record | 2 331 |
| Provincia di Livornolocation not on record | 398 |
| Museum of Zoology at the University of Bergen, Invertebrate Collectionlocation not on record | 162 |
| Zürich, CH | 145 |
| Museum Ludovicae Ulricae, Zoology Institute of the University of Uppsalalocation not on record | 126 |
| NHMOlocation not on record | 124 |
| Salzburg, AT | 98 |
| Tartu, EE | 88 |
| Bern, CH | 73 |
| New Haven, US | 73 |
| ZMAAlocation not on record | 62 |
| SLU Artdatabankenlocation not on record | 62 |
| Frauenfeld, CH | 55 |
| NTNU-VMlocation not on record | 54 |
| Musee d'Histoire Naturallelocation not on record | 54 |
| Philadelphia, US | 50 |
| Dhaka, BD | 46 |
| Tilburg, NL | 44 |
| Paro, BT | 35 |
| NMOKlocation not on record | 31 |
| Naturéum — Muséum cantonal des sciences naturelles, Lausanne, Département Zoologielocation not on record | 27 |
| CBDClocation not on record | 25 |
| Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznańlocation not on record | 25 |
| Natural History Museum Rotterdamlocation not on record | 23 |
| Kuopio, FI | 22 |
| Podgorica, ME | 20 |
| Archäologie und Museum Baselland - Museum.BLlocation not on record | 18 |
| SFRAlocation not on record | 17 |
| Helsinki, FI | 16 |
| Uniwersytet Łódzkilocation not on record | 14 |
| Nijmegen, NL | 14 |
| Durban Natural Science Museumlocation not on record | 14 |
| Museum zu Allerheiligen Schaffhausenlocation not on record | 12 |
| Geneva, CH | 11 |
| Naturmuseum St. Gallenlocation not on record | 11 |
| Rovaniemi, FI | 10 |
| Tallinn, EE | 9 |
| Muzeum Górnośląskie w Bytomiulocation not on record | 8 |
| NCMGlocation not on record | 8 |
| RMZlocation not on record | 7 |
| Museo civico di Storia naturale Giacomo Doria di Genova | Giacomo Doria Natural History Museum in Genoalocation not on record | 6 |
| Stockholm, SE | 5 |
| MZLUlocation not on record | 5 |
| ZSMlocation not on record | 4 |
| KSSlocation not on record | 4 |
| Naturmuseum Oltenlocation not on record | 4 |
| South Kensington, GB | 3 |
| NMBU:MINAlocation not on record | 3 |
| neflocation not on record | 3 |
| Naturama Aargaulocation not on record | 3 |
| Tromsø, NO | 2 |
| DABUHlocation not on record | 2 |
| RERElocation not on record | 2 |
| Research Collection of Bernard Dardennelocation not on record | 2 |
| Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeumlocation not on record | 1 |
| Natural History Museum, Londonlocation not on record | 1 |
| BioFokuslocation not on record | 1 |
Where the DNA of Hepialus humuli was picked up in samples of water, soil or air — nobody saw the organism, only its DNA left behind. A trace is a clue that the species was near, not a confirmed sighting.
Signal
Where its DNA was found
How strong is each trace?
Modelled climatemodelled
How to read this: each dot is one detection of this species' DNA in an environmental sample. The confidence meter weighs how many independent studies and places back up the signal — one detection in one study is a hint; many across several studies is solid. Records dated before 2008 (when eDNA methods began) are treated as likely mislabeled and left off the map.