Common white wave
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Geometridae
Genus: Cabera
Species:
C. pusaria
Binomial name
Cabera pusaria
Synonyms[1]

Phalaena pusaria Linnaeus, 1758

The common white wave (Cabera pusaria) is a moth of the family Geometridae. The species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae. It is found throughout the Palearctic region. Their habitat is deciduous forests and their surroundings.

Habitat.Ireland.

Description

This species has white wings, sometimes tinged with pink, slight grey dusted grey and with fine grey fascia (the first curved) on the forewing and two on the hindwing. ab. heveraria H.-Schiff. is a rare form in which the grey dusting densely covers almost the entire wings. ab. rotundaria Haw. is a rounder-winged form with the first lines strongly approximated and said to be the product of under-feeding the larvae. Hybrid fletcheri Tutt (pusaria male x exanthemata female) is just intermediate between the parent forms, rather pure white, the lines tinged with ochreous. The wingspan is 32–35 mm.[2]

One or two broods are produced each year and the adults can be seen at any time from May to August. This moth flies at night and is attracted to light.

Larva.

The larva is elongate, with a rather flattened head is very variable -green with purplish brown or blackish dorsal spots sometimes vague, purplish-brown with white spots, or grey mixed with reddish, or sometimes yellowish. It feeds on various trees and shrubs including alder, aspen, birch, oak, rowan and willow. The species overwinters as a pupa. The pupa is compact, brown, the wings olive-green.

Similar species

Taxonomy

Carl Linnaeus, when describing the moth, placed it in the genus Phalaena. It is now an obsolete genus, which he used to house most of the moths. The moth is now placed in the genus Cabera, which was raised by the German lepidopterist, Georg Friedrich Treitschke in 1825. Cabera refers to Cabeiro, the daughter of Proteus ″the prophetic old man of the sea who kept changing his shape to avoid being caught and having to make prophesies″. The specific name pusaria, is from pusa, the delicate complexion of a girl.[4]

References

  1. ↑ "Cabera pusaria (Linnaeus, 1758)". Fauna Europaea. Retrieved 21 August 2023.
  2. ↑ Prout, L. B. (1912–16). Geometridae. In A. Seitz (ed.) The Macrolepidoptera of the World. The Palaearctic Geometridae, 4. 479 pp. Alfred Kernen, Stuttgart.pdf
  3. ↑ Kimber, Ian. "70.278 BF1956 Common Wave Cabera exanthemata (Scopoli, 1763)". Ukmoths. Retrieved 21 August 2023.
  4. ↑ Emmet, A Maitland (1991). The Scientific Names of the British Lepidoptera. Their History and Meaning. Colchester: Harley Books. p. 183. ISBN 0 946589 28 3.
  • Chinery, Michael Collins Guide to the Insects of Britain and Western Europe 1986 (Reprinted 1991)
  • Skinner, Bernard Colour Identification Guide to Moths of the British Isles 1984
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