| | Insects of Britain and Ireland: the genera of Lepidoptera-Geometridae |
Adults. Crepuscular and nocturnal. Antennae of males bipectinate; apically simple. Face smooth.
Forewings 1.6–1.9 times as long as wide. The outer margin of the forewing convexly curved. Forewings green; predominantly green; without a clear discal mark. Hindwings conspicuously patterned to plain; green; not predominantly green, yellow, or black; without a clear discal mark; transversely lined (no first line, the second curved, white).
Vein 10 of the forewings arising out of vein 9. Hindwings exhibiting a tubular vein 5. Vein 5 of the hindwings arising from well above the middle of the transverse vein. Vein 8 of the hindwings shortly anastomosed basally with the upper margin of the cell, thence rapidly diverging. Hindwing veins 6 and 7 stalked.
Posterior tibiae of males 4-spurred.
Early stages. Larvae feeding on Clematis. Pupae above the ground (between leaves drawn together by silken strands).
British representation. 1 species; South-east England, Central-southern England, South-west England, and English Midlands (fairly common). Living adults found in July. H. chrysoprasaria (Small Emerald).
Subfamily. Geometrinae.
Illustrations. • Geometrinae: Newman (1869). 1, Aplasta ononaria (The Rest Harrow); 2, Pseudoterpna pruinata (Grass Emerald); 3, Comibaena bajularia (Blotched Emerald); 4, Geometra papilionaria (Large Emerald); 5, Thetidia smaragdaria (Essex Emerald); 6, Jodis lactearia (Little Emerald); 7, Chlorissa viridata (Small Grass Emerald); 8, Hemistola chrysoprasaria (Small Emerald); 9, Hemithea aestivaria (Common Emerald). From Newman (1869).
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’.
