''Cyclophora ruficiliaria'', the Jersey mocha, 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

Gottlieb August Wilhelm Herrich-Schäffer Gottlieb August Wilhelm Herrich-Schäffer (17 December 1799 – 14 April 1874) was a German entomologist and physician. He was born, and died, in Regensburg. Herrich-Schäffer studied and collected particularly butterflies and moths (Lepidoptera). ...

in 1855. It can be found in Europe, in particular the

Channel Islands The Channel Islands ( nrf, Îles d'la Manche; french: îles Anglo-Normandes or ''îles de la Manche'') are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two Crown Dependencies: the Bailiwick of Jersey, ...

as well as other parts of the mainland United Kingdom. The first ever recorded sighting of the Jersey mocha on the British mainland was in July 2003 at

Isle of Portland An isle is an island, land surrounded by water. The term is very common in British English. However, there is no clear agreement on what makes an island an isle or its difference, so they are considered synonyms. Isle may refer to: Geography * Is ...

, Dorset. Subsequently, the butterfly has been found again in Dorset, and has set up a small breeding colony in south-west Cornwall. The first recorded sighting of the moth in Hertfordshire occurred in September 2016, on

Roughdown Common Roughdown Common is a biological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire. The planning authority is Dacorum Borough Council. The site is Common land, and it is owned by the Box Moor Trust having been officially bo ...

Description

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 25–30 mm. It is a plain pale brown moth with faint crosslines and unringed white discal spots (sometimes obsolete) on the fore and hindwings. Certain identification requires examination of preparations of the genitalia. See similar species (below).

Biology

The moths fly from April to September depending on the location. The larvae feed on

oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

Similar species

''Cyclophora ruficiliaria'' is difficult to certainly distinguish from these congeners. 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. *Blair's mocha '' Cyclophora puppillaria'' (Herrich-Schäffer, 1855) *False Mocha ''

Cyclophora porata ''Cyclophora porata'', the false mocha, is a moth of the family Geometridae. The species can be found in southern Europe and England to Denmark, southern Sweden and the Caucasus. Description The wingspan is . The fore wings are reddish, warm oran ...

'' (Linnaeus, 1767) *Maiden’s Blush '' Cyclophora punctaria'' (Linnaeus, 1758) *Clay Triple-lines '' Cyclophora linearia'' (Hübner, 1799)

References

External links

Jersey mocha on ''UKMoths''''Lepiforum e.V.''
Moths described in 1855 Cyclophora (moth) Moths of Europe Taxa named by Gottlieb August Wilhelm Herrich-Schäffer {{Sterrhinae-stub