| | Insects of Britain and Ireland: the pug moths (Lepidoptera-Geometridae) |
Sloe Pug.
Adults. Posterior tibiae of males 4-spurred. Wingspan 18–21 mm. Forewings not noticeably elongate; the outer margin convexly curved; the costa arched; apically blunt to somewhat pointed.
Forewings relatively conspicuously patterned; usually green or green-tinged, but varying to bronze-tinged or whitish-greyish or (especially when faded) pale brownish; conspicuously darkly striated blackish-grey or fuscous, the edges of the median band black, its anterior edge curved and its posterior one curved to once-angulated (not dentate) towards the costa; a subterminal dark fascia interrupted near the apex, the subterminal line whitish only in dark varieties. Forewings with a dark discal mark. The discal mark shortly elongate to dot-like; not whitish-edged; black and distinct. Forewing fringes somewhat chequered to not chequered.
Hindwings green, greenish or pale grey, the postmedian fascia curved to smoothly geniculatebut not angulated; patterned similarly to the forewings; very conspicuously patterned (matching the forewings); transversely striated (the several darker striae sharp and wavy); with a clear discal mark, or without a clear discal mark; the fringes conspicuously chequered.
The abdomen conspicuously patterned; with an interrupted black sub-basal band; laterally neither black-streaked nor black-spotted.
Neuration. Vein 10 of the forewings arising out of 11 and anastomosing with 9 to form a simple areole.
Genitalia. The male abdominal plate in the form of two separate sclerotized components. The bursa copulatrix with ornamentation conspicuously restricted in distribution; conspicuously spiny to only inconspicuously spiny; ornamented exclusively by single narrow, curved transverse row of tiny spines.
Early stages, ecology. Botanically specialised. Foodplants woody-dicotyledonous; Rosaceae. The larvae found on Prunus spinosa, by contrast with P. rectangulata; feeding on flowers, seed capsules, and seeds.
Months of appearance, distribution. Adults abroad May, June, and July; larvae found March, April, and May. South-east England, Central-southern England, South-west England, English Midlands, Northern England, and Wales (but absent from much of the southwest).
Special key characters. Forewings without a postmedian line bearing arrow-like markings; without a dark grey band and two reddish-ochreous fasciae. The postmedian forewing line once-angulated to the costa. The subterminal line not whitish throughout. Hindwings greenish when fresh, or not predominantly green, yellow, or black; whitish, or green, or greenish, or pale fuscous, or pale grey, or blackish, or tinged bronze.
General comments. The adult moth is closely similar to the Green Pug, with which British material was confused until the larvae were correctly identified in 1960. Hindwing underside postmedian line obsolete or absent.
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 pug moths (Lepidoptera-Geometridae). Version: 27th July 2019. delta-intkey.com’.