''Aplocera efformata'', the lesser treble-bar, is a

moth Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of w ...

of the family Geometridae. The species was first described by Achille Guenée in 1858. It is known from Europe,

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...

and

Anatolia Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...

. It has a

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan of ...

of 35–41 mm. ''Aplocera efformata'' is difficult to certainly distinguish from its congener ''

Aplocera plagiata The treble-bar or St. John's wort inchworm (''Aplocera plagiata'') 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 reg ...

''. It is best distinguished from this that the innermost of the wing's three dark cross-bands are fairly straight with a marked bend near the front edge, not evenly curved. Moreover, it is mostly slightly smaller, the base colour of the forewing is slightly lighter and the cross-bands slightly darker coloured, so that they seem more pronounced, and the slash at the wing tip is lighter in colour, brownish, not black. The forewings are pointed, light grey with three dark grey cross-bands. The innermost of these is double, quite straight with a marked kink near the front edge. The two outermost are triple and evenly curved. the outermost cross band has two, more or less marked triangular projections on the outer side. At the wing tip there is a short, slightly diffuse, brownish slash. The hindwings are greyish-white. See Townsend et al.Martin C. Townsend, Jon Clifton and Brian Goodey (2010)
''British and Irish Moths: An Illustrated Guide to Selected Difficult Species''
(covering the use of genitalia characters and other features) Butterfly Conservation. There are two to three generations per year with adults on wing from the end of April to mid-November. The

larva A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. The ...

e feed on ''

Hypericum perforatum ''Hypericum perforatum'', known as St. John's wort, is a flowering plant in the family Hypericaceae and the type species of the genus ''Hypericum''. Possibly a hybrid between '' H. maculatum'' and '' H. attenuatum'', the species can be found a ...

''. Larvae can be found from June to August and from September to May. It overwinters in the larval stage. Pupation takes place beneath the soil.

Subspecies

* ''Aplocera efformata efformata'' * ''Aplocera efformata britonata'' Leraut, 1995

References

External links

Lesser Treble-bar at ''UKMoths''''Fauna Europaea''''Lepiforum e.V.''
Aplocera Moths of Europe Moths of Africa Moths of Asia Taxa named by Achille Guenée {{Larentiinae-stub