''Perizoma albulata'', the grass rivulet, 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 genus ''

Perizoma ''Perizoma'' is a genus in the geometer moth family (Geometridae). It is the type genus of tribe Perizomini in subfamily Larentiinae. The tribe is considered monotypic by those who include the genera '' Gagitodes'', '' Martania'' and '' Mesotyp ...

'' in the family Geometridae. 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.

Distribution

It is found in most of Europe and east to the

Urals The Ural Mountains ( ; rus, Ура́льские го́ры, r=Uralskiye gory, p=ʊˈralʲskʲɪjə ˈɡorɨ; ba, Урал тауҙары) or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through European ...

and

Transcaucasia The South Caucasus, also known as Transcaucasia or the Transcaucasus, is a geographical region on the border of Eastern Europe and Western Asia, straddling the southern Caucasus Mountains. The South Caucasus roughly corresponds to modern Arme ...

. Further east, it is found in

Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...

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 17–21 mm. "''C. albulata'' Schiff. Related to C. blandiata'' and ''Perizoma minorata">C. minorata''">Perizoma blandiata">C. blandiata'' and ''Perizoma minorata">C. minorata'' [but] on an average larger, the markings much weaker, brown. In the name-type the ground-colour is white and the markings quite indistinct, light brown or grey-brown, the median band scarcely indicated except by transverse lines. Our English race is less pure white, generally somewhat suffused with greyish or yellowish, but scarcely needs a separate name. - ''griseaia'' indicates the more extreme examples of this English race, in which the greyish tone of the markings becomes more pronounced and there is even some admixture of fuscous; the ground-colour remains white, but the hindwing is greyish. - ''subfasciaria'' Boh. is a small yellowish-grey or brownish-grey form, in general weakly marked, and occurs in some of the Scandinavian mountains and in

Shetland Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the no ...

. - ab. ''thules'' Weir is merely an extremely darkened aberration of ''subfasciaria'', perhaps found only in Shetland. - ''dissoluta'' Strand, from Arctic Norway, is paler than the type, perhaps on an average smaller, but not so small as ''subfasciaria''. It occurs also as an occasional aberration in the Swiss Alps, Bucovina and Roumania. - ab. ''hebudium'' Weir is a pure white markingless aberration of exceedingly rare occurrence except in the Hebrides, where it is comparatively frequent."Prout, L. B. 1912–16. Geometridae. In A. Seitz (ed.) ''The Macrolepidoptera of the World''. The Palaearctic Geometridae, 4. 479 pp. Alfred Kernen, Stuttgart. The larva is powerful, pale pink in colour with a brown head capsule.

Biology

The species is preferably found in dry, grass-dominated meadows. The larvae feed on the seeds of '' Rhinanthus minor''.

References

External links

*
''BioLib.cz''''Lepiforum e.V.''''De Vlinderstichting''
Perizoma Moths of Europe Taxa named by Michael Denis Taxa named by Ignaz Schiffermüller {{Larentiinae-stub