Thera cognata

Thera cognata, the chestnut-coloured carpet or Durham juniper moth, is a moth of the family Geometridae. The species was first described by Carl Peter Thunberg in 1792. It is found in Europe, Asia Minor, the Caucasus and Transcaucasus.

Illustration from John Curtis's British Entomology Volume 6

Thera cognata
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Arthropoda
Class:
Insecta
Order:
Lepidoptera
Family:
Geometridae
Genus:
Thera
Species:
T. cognata
Binomial name
Thera cognata
(Thunberg, 1792)
Synonyms
  • Geometra cognata Thunberg, 1792
  • Chesias geneata Feisthamel, 1835
  • Thera coniferata

The wingspan is 26–30 mm. The forewings are reddish brown. The median band and the basal field are darker in colour and these dark fields are delimited with black and white crosslines. The hindwings are whitish. Thera cognata is easily distinguished from Thera variata by its strong purple-brown or red-brown gloss. Hindwing a little more glossy than in Thera obeliscata. The typical northern form is rather small and in general dark reddish. - geneata Feisth., the prevailing form in the Alps and in Transcaucasia, perhaps also in the Pyrenees, is larger, somewhat paler and with a less definite red tinge, the ground colour being somewhat mixed with violet or purplish. — ab. perversa Hirschke is an aberration of geneata, from the Franzenshohe, in which the basal and median areas of the forewing, instead of being darker than the ground colour of the wings, are lighter.[1]

Adults are on wing from July to August in one generation.

The larvae feed on Juniperus species.

Subspecies
  • Thera cognata cognata
  • Thera cognata geneata (Feisthamel, 1835)
gollark: Brexit is going poorly. The UK is looking to launch into space to cut ties with Europe.
gollark: Probably.
gollark: The UK has *all* the best laws.
gollark: Not under UK law!
gollark: I mean, it might be illegal to listen to some things, but in that case your country is wrong.

References
  1. Prout, L.B. 1912–16. Geometridae. In A. Seitz (ed.) The Macrolepidoptera of the World. The Palaearctic Geometridae, 4. 479 pp. Alfred Kernen, Stuttgart.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.