The streak (''Chesias legatella'') 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. It is found in northern and western Europe and north Africa. It is common in Britain, but local and confined to the north in Ireland. The species was first described by

Michael Denis Johann Nepomuk Cosmas Michael Denis, also: ''Sined the Bard'', (27 September 1729 – 29 September 1800) was an Austrian Catholic priest and Jesuit, who is best known as a poet, bibliographer, and lepidopterist. Life Denis was born at Schärding ...

and

Ignaz Schiffermüller Ignaz Schiffermüller (born 2 October 1727 in Hellmonsödt; died 21 June 1806 in Linz) was an Austrian naturalist mainly interested in Lepidoptera. Schiffermüller was a teacher at the Theresianum College in Vienna. His collection was presented ...

in 1775. The species is quite variable, the forewings being buff or brown, but is always easily identified by the bold whitish apical streak which gives it its common name. The hindwings are pale grey or buff. 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 . See Prout Prout, L. B. (1912–16). Geometridae. In A. Seitz (ed.) ''The Macrolepidoptera of the World''. The Palaearctic Geometridae, 4. 479 pp. Alfred Kernen, Stuttgar
pdf
/ref> for a full description. The larva is usually dark green with darker, paler-edged dorsal line, a broad whitish or yellowish subdorsal. It has a conspicuous white lateral stripe and 3 white lines ventrally. The spiracles are red, ringed with black. It is adaptive to its environment, a yellow form being frequent on plants on which there is much bloom, while a much blackened form has been recorded from dry, stunted plants. The pupa is red-brown, dorsally rather darker, wings tinged with green. The moth flies, usually at dusk, in September and October and is sometimes 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 ...

usually feeds on broom but has been recorded on

yellow bush lupin ''Lupinus arboreus'', the yellow bush lupine (US) or tree lupin (UK), is a species of flowering plant in the legume family Fabaceae. Description ''Lupinus arboreus'' is an evergreen shrub growing to tall (hence the alternative common name, tree ...

. The species overwinters as an

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the a ...

. The pupa is buried deeply in the ground without a cocoon. #''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. ''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.

External links

The streak at ''UKMoths''''Fauna Europaea''''Lepiforum. e.V.''
Chesias Moths described in 1775 Moths of Europe Taxa named by Michael Denis Taxa named by Ignaz Schiffermüller {{Larentiinae-stub