''Pterophorus pentadactyla'', commonly known as the white plume moth, 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 ...

in the family

Pterophoridae The Pterophoridae or plume moths are a family of Lepidoptera with unusually modified wings. Though they belong to the Apoditrysia like the larger moths and the butterflies, unlike these they are tiny and were formerly included among the assemblag ...

. It is found in the West

Palearctic The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Sibe ...

including North Africa and Europe. 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 . It is uniformly white, with the hind wing pair divided in three feathery plumes and the front pair in another two. The moths fly from June to August. The larvae feed on bindweed (''

Convolvulus ''Convolvulus'' is a genus of about 200 to 250''Convolvulus''.
Flora of China.

'' species).

Taxonomy

This moth 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 1758 in the

10th edition of Systema Naturae The 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae'' is a book written by Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus and published in two volumes in 1758 and 1759, which marks the starting point of zoological nomenclature. In it, Linnaeus introduced binomial nomencla ...

. He gave it the name ''Aciptilia pentadactyla'', with the

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

being descriptive of the appearance of the wings, and coming from the Greek meaning "five fingers"; the insect was later transferred to the genus '' Pterophorus''.

Description

The white plume moth is a distinctive insect with a wingspan of . The adult is pure white, the wings being divided into five slender feather-like plumes, two forming part of the forewing and three part of the hind wing. The insect is nocturnal, emerging at dusk, and is on the wing during June and July. The

larva A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. The ...

e are green, with a yellow dorsal stripe and tufts of pale hairs.

Distribution and habitat

This moth is found over much of Europe and the Middle East, as far east as Iran, also North Africa. In Britain, it is common in England and Wales but more local in southern Scotland and in the coastal parts of western, southern and eastern Ireland. It is typically found in rough grassland, on road verges and in gardens. The larva feeds on leaves and flowers of field bindweed, hedge bindweed and other members of the family

Convolvulaceae Convolvulaceae (), commonly called the bindweeds or morning glories, is a family of about 60 genera and more than 1,650 species. These species are primarily herbaceous vines, but also include trees, shrubs and herbs. The tubers of several spec ...

. It hibernates, overwintering as a small larva.

Pest status

The

sweet potato The sweet potato or sweetpotato (''Ipomoea batatas'') is a dicotyledonous plant that belongs to the Convolvulus, bindweed or morning glory family (biology), family, Convolvulaceae. Its large, starchy, sweet-tasting tuberous roots are used as a r ...

(''Ipomoea batatas'') is a member of the family Convolvulaceae, and in Nigeria, the larvae of the white plume moth feed on the plant. The moth is considered a pest species along with the sweet potato butterfly (''

Acraea acerata ''Acraea acerata'', the falls acraea or small yellow-banded acraea, is a butterfly in the family Nymphalidae. It has an extensive range in sub-Saharan Africa. Range It is found in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Benin, N ...

''), leaf folders (''

Brachmia ''Brachmia'' is a genus of the twirler moth family (Gelechiidae). Among these, it is mostly placed in the subfamily Dichomeridinae. Taxonomy Other authors have used it as type genus of a distinct subfamily Brachmiinae. However, the "Brachmiinae ...

'' and ''

Helcystogramma ''Helcystogramma'' is a genus of moths in the family Gelechiidae. The genus was erected by Philipp Christoph Zeller in 1877. Distribution and diversity The genus is distributed almost worldwide, with around half of known taxa occurring in Asia. ...

'' spp.), and sweet potato army worms (''

Spodoptera ''Spodoptera'' is a genus of moths of the family Noctuidae erected by Achille Guenée in 1852. Many are known as pest insects. The larvae are sometimes called armyworms. The roughly thirty species are distributed across six continents. Descri ...

'' spp.). Pterophorus pentadactyla MHNT.jpg, Adult male specimen 45.030 BF1513 White Plume, Pterophorus pentadactyla, larva (9077821017).jpg, Larva

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q311096 pentadactyla Moths described in 1758 Plume moths of Africa Plume moths of Asia Plume moths of Europe Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus