Brimstone moth

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Brimstone Moth
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Geometridae
Genus: Opisthograptis
Species: O. luteolata
Binomial name
Opisthograptis luteolata
(Linnaeus, 1758)
Synonyms
  • Phalaena luteolata Linnaeus, 1758
  • Rumia provincialis Oberthür, 1919

The Brimstone Moth (Opisthograptis luteolata) is a moth of the family Geometridae.

Description

This species is unmistakable within its range, with bright yellow wings marked with small brown patches along the costa of the forewing and a small brown-edged white stigma, also on the forewing. The wingspan is 33–46 mm. The moth sometimes flies during the day but mainly at night, and is attracted to light.

The larva is brown or green with a "horn" on its back and feeds on a variety of trees and shrubs. Recorded food plants include apple, birch, blackthorn, currant, hawthorn, Prunus, rowan, Amelanchier and willow. The species, due to its complex life cycle, overwinters either as a larva or a pupa.

Life-cycle

The species has a complex ecology: sometimes one brood is produced each year but sometimes three broods are produced over a two-year period, with the result that adults can be seen on the wing at any time from April to October .

Distribution

The Brimstone is found throughout the Palearctic region and the Near East.

Early research

The English zoologist Edward Bagnall Poulton, author of The Colours of Animals (1890) described countershading in insects including the caterpillar larvae of the brimstone moth.[1] The American artist Abbott Handerson Thayer, generally considered the originator of the theory of countershading, credited Poulton with its partial discovery.[2]

Gallery

  • Underside

  • Caterpillar

  • Pupating

  • Pupa

  • Illustration from Meyers Blitz-Lexikon, 1932

  • Figure of larva as twig mimic[1]


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Bibliography

  • Chinery, Michael Collins Guide to the Insects of Britain and Western Europe 1986 (Reprinted 1991)
  • Skinner, Bernard Colour Identification Guide to Moths of the British Isles 1984

References

  1. ↑ Poulton, Edward B. (October 1887). "Notes in 1886 upon Lepidopterous Larvae, etc.". Transactions of the Entomological Society of London: 294. 
  2. ↑ Thayer, Gerald H. (1909). Concealing-Coloration in the Animal Kingdom. An Exposition of the Laws of Disguise Through Color and Pattern: Being a Summary of Abbott H. Thayer's Discoveries. Macmillan. p. 22. 

External links

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