The ash pug (''Eupithecia innotata'' f. ''fraxinata'', originally known by the binomial name ''Eupithecia fraxinata'', but now believed to be a form of '' Eupithecia innotata'') 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 geometer moths are moths belonging to the family Geometridae of the insect order Lepidoptera, the moths and butterflies. Their scientific name derives from the Ancient Greek ''geo'' γεω (derivative form of or "the earth"), and ''metro ...

. It is widely distributed in the UK. The forewings are generally dark brown or grey with few distinguishing marks apart from a small white tornal spot which may not be present on the frequent melanic forms. The

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 o ...

is 18–24 mm. Two

brood Brood may refer to: Nature * Brood, a collective term for offspring * Brooding, the incubation of bird eggs by their parents * Bee brood, the young of a beehive * Individual broods of North American Periodical Cicadas: ** Brood X, the largest b ...

s are produced each year with the adults flying in May and June and again in August. Moths of the spring brood are usually darker in colour than the later specimens. The caterpillars feed on ash. The species overwinters as a

pupa A pupa ( la, pupa, "doll"; plural: ''pupae'') is the life stage of some insects undergoing transformation between immature and mature stages. Insects that go through a pupal stage are holometabolous: they go through four distinct stages in thei ...

. # ''The flight season refers to the

British Isles The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isles, ...

. This may vary in other parts of the range.''

References

Chinery, Michael Michael Chinery (born 1938, in London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-e ...

(1986, reprinted 1991). ''Collins Guide to the Insects of Britain and Western Europe''. * Skinner, Bernard (1984). '' The Colour Identification Guide to Moths of the British Isles''. *Waring, Paul; Townsend, Martin & Lewington, Richard (2003) ''Field Guide to the Moths of Great Britain and Ireland''. British Wildlife Publishing, Hook, UK. . Eupithecia Moths described in 1863 Moths of Europe Forma taxa {{Eupithecia-stub