Lomographa bimaculata

Lomographa bimaculata
Adult at IJmuiden (The Netherlands)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Geometridae
Tribe: Baptini
Genus: Lomographa
Species: L. bimaculata
Binomial name
Lomographa bimaculata
(Fabricius, 1775)
Synonyms

See text

The White-pinion Spotted (Lomographa bimaculata) is a geometer moth species (family Geometridae). It belongs to the large geometer moth subfamily Ennominae, and therein to the tribe Baptini. It is – under its junior synonym – the type species of its genus Lomographa. It is also (under its original name Phalaena bimaculata) the type species of Bapta, a junior objective synonym of Lomographa and the namesake of the Baptini.[1]

Two subspecies have been named, as well as several forms (e.g. bipunctata):[2]

Ecology and description

The rather common species inhabits mainly woodland and can be found all over Central and East Europe. However, it seems to be absent on the Balkans, between Bosnia-Herzegovina and Greece. It is also not found on Iceland and rarer at the periphery of its range; for example, north of the English Midlands and on Ireland it is found only locally.[3] East it extends into the Caucasus, Russia, the Russian Far East, Siberia, Central Asia and Japan

The adults fly usually in early summer, e.g. from May to June in the British Isles. But in exceptional cases it is found later in the year; it was recorded in Germany in early August 1938, for example. It is a mainly nocturnal species which can be attracted to light by night. The adults' wingspan is 22–26 mm. The wings are a very pale silvery grey, with two dark grey spots on each forewing's leading edge, from which the two bands typical of Ennominae (but in this species consisting only of very small and weak grey speckles) run over the fore- and hindwings to form a semicircle. The body is also whitish.[4]

This moth has a single generation per year (though late sightings suggest that this might not always be so). The caterpillars feed on Prunus species – including Bird Cherry (P. padus) and Blackthorn (P. spinosa) – as well as on Crataegus (hawthorns).[5]

Synonyms

Junior synonyms of the White-pinion Spotted include:[6]

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Pitkin & Jenkins (2004ab)
  2. ↑ Kolar (1942), and see references in Savela (2009)
  3. ↑ FE (2009), Kimber [2010]
  4. ↑ Kolar (1942), Kimber [2010]
  5. ↑ Kimber [2010], and see references in Savela (2009)
  6. ↑ Pitkin & Jenkins (2004ab), and see references in Savela (2009)

References

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