''Larentia clavaria'', the mallow, is a
moth of the family
Geometridae. The species was
first described by
Adrian Hardy Haworth in 1809. It is found from Siberia (
Altai Mountains
The Altai Mountains (), also spelled Altay Mountains, are a mountain range in Central Asia, Central and East Asia, where Russia, China, Mongolia and Kazakhstan converge, and where the rivers Irtysh and Ob River, Ob have their headwaters. The m ...
) in the east to the
Iberian Peninsula,
North Africa, and the
British Isles in the west. In the north it ranges to the
Caucasus,
Tajikistan and
Fennoscandia
__NOTOC__
Fennoscandia (Finnish language, Finnish, Swedish language, Swedish and no, Fennoskandia, nocat=1; russian: Фенноскандия, Fennoskandiya) or the Fennoscandian Peninsula is the geographical peninsula in Europe, which includes ...
. In the south it is found the western
Mediterranean islands,
Italy, the
Balkans and
Asia Minor. It occurs only locally and is almost always rare. In the
Alps, it rises up to 1200 m above sea level.
The
wingspan is 36–40 mm. Forewings are fawn colour with a browner basal patch, median band and distal shade, all finely and delicately white-edged distally, the median band also accompanied by a fine white line proximally, sharply indented on the submedian fold and more shallowly in the cell. Hindwing pale, becoming browner at the distal margin.
[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 long and slender, monochrome bright yellow-green.
The moth flies from August to November depending on the location.
The larvae feed on ''
Althaea officinalis'' and ''
Malva'' species.
Subspecies
*''Larentia clavaria clavaria''
*''Larentia clavaria datinaria''
(Oberthur, 1890)
*''Larentia clavaria pallidata''
(Staudinger, 1901)
*''Larentia clavaria saisanica''
Prout, 1937
References
External links
The mallow at ''UKMoths''''Lepiforum e.V.''''De Vlinderstichting''
Moths described in 1809
Larentiini
Moths of Europe
Moths of Asia
Taxa named by Adrian Hardy Haworth
{{Larentiini-stub