The feathered thorn (''Colotois pennaria'') 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 ...

. It was first described by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

in 1761.

Etymology

The common name derives from the very strong feathering on the antennae of the male. Also the species name ''pennaria'' derives from the Latin suffix ''aria'' – meaning "related to or connected with" – at the end of the Latin word ''penna'' meaning "feather".

Description

The forewings of this species are basically brown but individuals vary greatly in tone from drab light brown to much richer reddish tones. They are usually marked with two dark

fascia A fascia (; plural fasciae or fascias; adjective fascial; from Latin: "band") is a band or sheet of connective tissue, primarily collagen, beneath the skin that attaches to, stabilizes, encloses, and separates muscles and other internal organs. ...

and a small discal spot but these features can be faint or almost absent. The hindwings are lighter buffish brown. 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 46–50 mm, the males being usually larger and broader-winged than the females. Prout describes the aberrationsProut, 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> The females tend to be rather sluggish but the males fly actively at night and are attracted to light. The species is on the wing from September to November . The egg is olive-green with a ring of pale specks round the micropylar end; laid in a cluster on a twig, hibernating.The

caterpillar Caterpillars ( ) are the larval stage of members of the order Lepidoptera (the insect order comprising butterflies and moths). As with most common names, the application of the word is arbitrary, since the larvae of sawflies (suborder Sym ...

is hairless, brown or purplish grey with ochreous spots and purplish grey with ochreous spots with reddish anal points.It is twig-like and reaches a length of up to 50 mm. It can be found from May to July feeding mainly at night on a variety of

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

s and

shrub A shrub (often also called a bush) is a small-to-medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees ...

s (see list below). 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 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.''

Distribution

This species can be found throughout Europe and the

Near East The ''Near East''; he, המזרח הקרוב; arc, ܕܢܚܐ ܩܪܒ; fa, خاور نزدیک, Xāvar-e nazdik; tr, Yakın Doğu is a geographical term which roughly encompasses a transcontinental region in Western Asia, that was once the hist ...

to the

Caucasus The Caucasus () or Caucasia (), is a region between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, mainly comprising Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and parts of Southern Russia. The Caucasus Mountains, including the Greater Caucasus range, have historically ...

and east to Sakhalin, Amur, Primorye, Korea, Japan (as subspecies ''ussuriensis'').

Habitat

Found in mainly deciduous and mixed forests, and in large gardens.

Gallery

File:Colotois pennaria Lym.jpg, File:Colotois pennaria 9018r.jpg, Dorsal view File:Colotois pennaria 9021r.jpg, Ventral view

Subspecies

* ''Colotois pennaria paupera'' (Linnaeus, 1761) ''C. p. pennaria'' in ''Fauna Europaea''
/ref> * ''Colotois pennaria pennaria'' Hausmann, 1995

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 ...

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is geo ...

.''C. p. paupera'' in ''Fauna Europaea''
/ref> * ''Colotois pennaria ussuriensis'' Bang-Haas, 1927

Recorded food plants

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

Feathered thorn on ''UKMoths''
* ttp://www.lepiforum.de/cgi-bin/lepiwiki.pl?Colotois_Pennaria ''Lepiforum e.V.'' {{Taxonbar, from=Q949497 Colotoini Moths described in 1761 Moths of Asia Moths of Europe Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus