The blood-vein (''Timandra comae'') 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 ''met ...

. The species was first described by Anton Schmidt in 1931.

Distribution

It has a scattered distribution in western and central Europe north of the

Alps The Alps () ; german: Alpen ; it, Alpi ; rm, Alps ; sl, Alpe . are the highest and most extensive mountain range system that lies entirely in Europe, stretching approximately across seven Alpine countries (from west to east): France, Sw ...

. In 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, ...

the distribution is patchy outside southern

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. In far eastern Europe – east of a line running roughly from

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

through

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, a ...

– it is replaced by its

sister species In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree. Definition The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram: Taxon A and t ...

Timandra griseata The blood-vein (''Timandra comae'') is a moth of the family Geometridae. The species was first described by Anton Schmidt in 1931. Distribution It has a scattered distribution in western and central Europe north of the Alps. In the British Isle ...

''. The species were split in 1931, only to be subsequently re-merged by most authors. But since 1994, new research has come out in favour of treating them as distinct species.Õunap et al. (2005)

Description

Timandra comae (Blood-vein), Elst (Gld), the Netherlands

The wings are cream coloured with bold red or purple fascia forming a diagonal stripe across forewings and hindwings. All wings are fringed with the same colour. The tornus of the hindwing is sharply angled giving a distinctive shape. 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 of ...

is 30–35 mm.

Biology

Two broods are produced each year with the adults flying in May and June and again in August and September. It flies at night and is attracted to light. 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 ...

is grey brown with darker spots on the back. In the UK, it feeds on the leaves of a variety of plants including dock,

knotgrass Knotgrass or knot grass is the common name for several plants and a moth and may refer to: *''Paspalum distichum'', a species of grass *''Polygonum'', a genus of plants in the buckwheat family, more often known as knot weed *''Acronicta rumicis ...

sorrel Sorrel (''Rumex acetosa''), also called common sorrel or garden sorrel, is a perennial herbaceous plant in the family Polygonaceae. Other names for sorrel include spinach dock and narrow-leaved dock ('dock' being a common name for the genus '' ...

and various species of '' Atriplex''. It overwinters as a larva.

Notes

References

Bibliography

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). ''Collins Guide to the Insects of Britain and Western Europe'' 1986 (Reprinted 1991) * Õunap, Erki; Viidalepp, Jaan & Saarma, Urmas (2005)
"Phylogenetic evaluation of the taxonomic status of ''Timandra griseata'' and ''T. comae'' (Lepidoptera: Geometridae: Sterrhinae)"
''European Journal of Entomology'', 102: 607–615. * Skinner, Bernard (1984). ''Colour Identification Guide to Moths of the British Isles'' 1984

External links

Blood-vein at ''UKMoths''''Fauna Europaea''''Lepiforum e.V.''
Timandrini Moths described in 1931 Geometrid moths of Great Britain Moths of Europe {{Sterrhinae-stub