Top 20 Most Common Insects in Vienna

Cabbage white (Pieris rapae) derives its common name from its habits as a caterpillar, which is a ferocious pest for cabbage, kale and broccoli farmers. In North America, it is one of the first butterflies to emerge in spring, heralding the beginning of the season.

The moth has a wingspan of 30 to 35 mm. The length of the forewings varies from 14 to 17 mm. Forewing rufous brown, dusted with greyer; costal edge whitish; lines brown, conversely edged with paler; outer line obscurely lunulate-dentate, the teeth not marked by dots on veins; submarginal line pale, diffuse, edged outwardly with darker; reniform stigma forming a distinct white spot at lower end of cell; hindwing dark or pale grey, sometimes tinged with rufous or ochreous; in the form known as italogallica Mill, the wings are darker, dull brown; — flecki Carad.; from Romania and the Bukovina, is rather smaller, the forewing dull grey brown, the hindwing fuscous: - in fasciata Spul. the darker brown tints are more strongly developed in median area so as to form a kind of fascia; besides the above already named forms there appear to be two more, equally deserving of a separate name; — ab. ochrea nov. [Warren] is ochreous, dusted with grey, and with a slight flush, rufous in male reddish brown in female, with the lines dark grey and the marginal area darker; the white spot at end of cell as usual; hindwing dirty whitish in male with termen greyer, more wholly grey in female; two males from Silvaplana, Engadine, Switzerland, and one female without locality; — the other, ab. expallidata nov. is quite small, smooth pale grey with a tannish-peach tinge; the inner line hardly traceable, but the outer black and distinct throughout; the lunules and the teeth all alike strongly marked; but the usual marginal dark area is here concolorous with rest of wing; the median vein shows dark below the white discal spot; hindwing dirty white, greyer towards termen: One? from Digne, basses Alpes, June 1908.

White-banded toothed carpet moth (Epirrhoe alternata) is a species of moth with uniformly gray and brown coloring. Adults are generally seen from late spring to mid-autumn. It is strongly attracted to light and feeds on plants of the genus Galium, known more informally as "bedstraw."

The wingspan is 3 - 3.5 cm.Forewing purplish fuscous, more or less greenish-tinged, with a paler patch beyond the cell; prothorax conspicuously whitish. the white apex is suffused with grey brown instead of green, with a white lunule on its inner edge. The white patch diastal to the reniform appears to resemble a crown.

The knot grass (Acronicta rumicis) distinguishes itself by its ashy complexion. The darker complexion likely comes from the advancement of the industrial revolution during the 20th century. While it is important to the conservation efforts of the UK, there are those that would prefer to be without them due to they are considered a pest of strawberries and maize.

It rests with closed wings when not in flight.

Common brimstone (Gonepteryx rhamni) is an attractive species of butterfly; males display iridescence and have yellow wings, whereas females have white-green, non-iridescent wings. This species is wholly reliant on two species of buckthorn plant to lay its eggs. Consequently, the larvae consume large amounts of buckthorn.

Forewing ochreous, the costal area, including cell, dark brown; dark brown patches at outer margin on both folds, the upper connected with outer line by a dark double streak; inner line strongly angulated; outer represented by a double row of vein-dashes: orbicular and reniform stigmata with dark centres and rings; the former small and round, more rarely flattened: the latter large; hindwing whitish, variably suffused with grey.

The species has a wingspan of 3 - 3.5 cm. Its distinctive outline is familiar at lighted windows. The wings are buff or cream with dark fasciae (bands). Some specimens have a red-orange colouring. The pattern elements are dark brown and clearly shown. On the forewings there are three crosslines; on the hindwings there are two crosslines. The outer cross line has a significant outward angle near the costa. The area between the middle and outer cross line is dark brown. The discal flecks are small and inconspicuous, they may also be missing. Small marginal dots lie at the outer edge and can make almost a narrow marginal line.

The name-typical form of ferrugata as figured by Clerck and well described by Linne, has the median band reddish or purplish, the distal area very weakly marked (except the costal patch and two dark spots between the radials) often almost entirely white or whitish. An aberration, ab. unidentaria Haw. is a very common and very interesting aberration which has been proved, by my very extensive breeding experiments and those of Dr. Draudt, to be an almost perfect Mendelian "recessive". It differs in having the median band black, not reddish. — ab. coarctata Prout has the median band greatly narrowed, only 1–2 mm. in width; the rest of the markings often in part obsolete. - bilbainensis Fuchs, from Bilbao, said to be a local race, is described as smaller, narrower-winged, the distal edge of the median band more distinctly biangulate. I doubt its validity. — stupida Alph., from Issyk-kul, Tibet, W. Central China, etc., is rather larger, with whiter hindwing otherwise similar to ab. unidentaria. Xanthorhoe ferrugata is difficult to certainly distinguish from Xanthorhoe spadicearia (Denis & Schiffermüller, 1775). See Townsend et al.