| | Insects of Britain and Ireland: the genera of Lepidoptera-Geometridae |
Hibernia, Hybernia, Lampetia.
Adults. Crepuscular to nocturnal; with fully developed wings, or flightless. The flightless females apterous (the body light grey with contrasty black markings). Antennae of males shortly bipectinate (the short pectinations fasciculate-ciliate); apically simple; fasciculate-ciliate. Face rough (haired). Tongue fully developed, or absent (?).
Wingspan 40–45 mm. The outer margin of the forewing convexly curved to more or less straight. Forewings whitish-ochreous, strigulated dark fuscous, with reddish-ochreous, ferrugineous, darkly fuscous or purplish-fuscous basal and post-median bands; or dark ochreous to ferrugineous, darkly speckled and/or strigulated; predominantly pale ochreous, or ochreous, or light brown; without a transparent discal scar; with a clear discal mark (usually, this blackish), or without a clear discal mark. Forewings of the male without a fovea. Hindwings somewhat conspicuously patterned to plain; whitish-ochreous, sprinkled grey; with a clear discal mark (this dark); transversely lined to without transverse lines.
Hindwings lacking a tubular vein 5. Vein 8 of the hindwings approximated to or anastomosed with the upper margin of the cell to the middle or beyond. Hindwing veins 6 and 7 separate.
Thorax crested. Posterior tibiae of males 4-spurred.
The abdomen conspicuously patterned (grey with black spots, in the female), or plain (in the male).
Early stages. Larvae feeding on foliage of diverse deciduous trees and shrubs.
British representation. 1 species; South-east England, Central-southern England, South-west England, English Midlands, Northern England, Southern Scotland, Northern Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. Living adults found October to December. E. defoliaria (Mottled Umber).
Subfamily. Ennominae.
Illustrations. • Erannis defoliaria (Mottled Umber: variation in males, photos). Erannis defoliaria (Mottled Umber): males and a (wingless) female. Exemplifying colour variants in the males, all commonly represented in the population of a small area of deciduous woodland at Leek, Staffs., during the decade 1948–1958. Although the locality lies within 10 and 30 miles respectively of heavily industrialized Stole-on-Trent and Manchester, the dark forms in this species apparently represent “rural apostatic" rather than “industrial” melanism.
From L. Watson's collection. • Erannis defoliaria (Mottled Umber): B. Ent. 703. • Erannis defoliaria: B. Ent. 703, legend+text. • Erannis defoliaria: B. Ent. 703, text cont.. • Agriopis, Alsophila, Apocheima, Phigalia, Erannis, Lycia: Newman. 1a-b, Apocheima hispidaria (Small Brindled Beauty, male and apterous female); 2a-b, Phigalia pilosaria (Pale Brindled Beauty, male and apterous female); 3a-b, Lycia zonaria (Belted Beauty, male and vestigially-winged female); 4, Lycia hirtaria (Brindled Beauty); 5a-c, Agriopis leucophaearia (Spring Usher, males and vestigially-winged female); 6a-b, Agriopis marginaria (Dotted Border, male and vestigially-winged female); 7a-b, Agriopis aurantiaria, male and vestigially-winged female); 8a-c, Erannis defoliaria (Mottled Umber, males and apterous female); 9a-b, Alsophila aescularia (March Moth, male and apterous female). From Newman, 1869. • Oenochrominae and Ennominae: Kirby 47. OENOCHROMINAE. 17, Alsophila aescularia (March Moth). ENNOMINAE. 1, Epione vespertaria (Dark Bordered Beauty); 2, Epione repandaria (Bordered Beauty); 3, Cepphis advenaria (Little Thorn); 4, "Hypoplectis adspersaria", = ?; 5, Pseudopanthera macularia (Speckled Yellow); 6, Eilicrinia cordiaria; 7, Semiothisa alternaria (Sharp-angled Peacock); 8, Semiothisa signaria ; 9, Semiothisa liturata (Tawny Barred Angle); 10, cf. Epirrhanthis diversata; 11, Theria primaria (Early Moth); 12, Agriopis bajaria; 13, Agriopis leucophaearia (Spring Usher); 14, Agriopis aurantiaria (Scarce Umber); 15, Agriopis marginaria (Dotted Border); 16, Erannis defoliaria (Mottled Umber); 18, Phigalia pilosaria (Pale Brindled Beauty); 19, Apocheima hispidaria (Small Brindled Beauty); 20, Lycia pomonaria; 21, Lycia zonaria (Belted Beauty); 22, Lycia hirtaria (Brindled Beauty); 23, Biston strataria (Oak Beauty); 24, Biston betularia (Peppered Moth); 25, Menophra abruptaria (Waved Umber); 26, "Nychiodes lividaria", cf. Eunychiodes amygdalaria?. From Kirby 47, with updated names. • Larentiinae: Phigalia, (Pale Brindled Beauty), Erannis (Mottled Umber, Scarce Umber, Spring Usher, Dotted Border).
We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, and distributions of character states within any set of taxa. See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2003 onwards. Insects of Britain and Ireland: the genera of Lepidoptera-Geometridae. Version: 14th February 2021. delta-intkey.com’.
