''Epirrita filigrammaria'', the small autumnal moth or small autumnal carpet, 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 Gottlieb August Wilhelm Herrich-Schäffer in 1846. It is found in Scotland, northern England, Wales and Ireland. ''Epirrita filigrammaria'' is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

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, ...

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 30–38 mm. The ground colour is greyish brown. There are a few small dark bands across the forewings (sometimes obscure) and a well-defined fringe along the edge of the forewings. It is very similar to its congeners , the autumnal moth (''

Epirrita autumnata The autumnal moth (''Epirrita autumnata'') is a moth of the family Geometridae. The species was first described by Moritz Balthasar Borkhausen in 1794. It is found throughout the Palearctic region and the Near East and has a much wider distri ...

''), the November moth ('' Epirrita dilutata'' ) and the

pale November moth The pale November moth (''Epirrita christyi'') is a moth of the family Geometridae. The species was first described by Allen in 1906. It is a fairly common species in Western Europe including the British Isles. This species is almost identical ...

(''

Epirrita christyi The pale November moth (''Epirrita christyi'') is a moth of the family Geometridae. The species was first described by Allen in 1906. It is a fairly common species in Western Europe including the British Isles. This species is almost identical ...

'') . 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. The moth flies in August and September. The larvae feed on heather (''

Calluna vulgaris ''Calluna vulgaris'', common heather, ling, or simply heather, is the sole species in the genus ''Calluna'' in the flowering plant family Ericaceae. It is a low-growing evergreen shrub growing to tall, or rarely to and taller, and is found wid ...

'') and bilberry (''

Vaccinium myrtillus ''Vaccinium myrtillus'' or European blueberry is a holarctic species of shrub with edible fruit of blue color, known by the common names bilberry, blaeberry, wimberry, and whortleberry. It is more precisely called common bilberry or blue whortle ...

''). South, Richard (1909). ''The Moths of the British Isles Second Series''. "Hydriomeninae". via – Wikisource.

References

External links

Small Autumnal Moth at ''UKMoths''''Lepiforum e.V.''
Geometridae Moths described in 1846 Taxa named by Gottlieb August Wilhelm Herrich-Schäffer {{Larentiinae-stub