The argent and sable moth (''Rheumaptera hastata'') is a day-flying

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, with distinctive black and white colors. They tend to live on

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...

s and hillsides. 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 spin together the leaves of their food plants (such as

birch A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech-oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' contains 30 ...

and bog myrtle) to form their cocoons. It was named argent and sable in 1778. Argent and

sable The sable (''Martes zibellina'') is a species of marten, a small omnivorous mammal primarily inhabiting the forest environments of Russia, from the Ural Mountains throughout Siberia, and northern Mongolia. Its habitat also borders eastern Kaza ...

refer to the heraldic color names for white and black. Their distribution is

Holarctic The Holarctic realm is a biogeographic realm that comprises the majority of habitats found throughout the continents in the Northern Hemisphere. It corresponds to the floristic Boreal Kingdom. It includes both the Nearctic zoogeographical region ...

. The species 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 his 1758 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae''.

Distribution

The species occurs in almost all parts of Europe. The distribution area stretches over the northern Asia to the

Russian Far East The Russian Far East (russian: Дальний Восток России, r=Dal'niy Vostok Rossii, p=ˈdalʲnʲɪj vɐˈstok rɐˈsʲiɪ) is a region in Northeast Asia. It is the easternmost part of Russia and the Asian continent; and is admini ...

and large parts of

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

on to

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. The species occurs in large parts of North America. Currently three subspecies are distinguished ''Rheumaptera hastata hastata'', ''Rheumaptera hastata nigrescens'' and ''Rheumaptera hastata thulearia''. Rheumaptera hastata ssp

Description

The wings have a black ground color with variable white pattern elements. A wider inner cross and a narrow basal cross line are typical. The dark midfield is traversed by white patches, which may be continuous. The outer cross line forms a wide white band, which usually has a row of black dots. In the black area of the margin is a wavy line broken into white stains, which forms an arrow- or spearhead-shaped element (''R. hastata'' is Latin for spear shaped). The fringes are black and white patched. The pattern of the hindwing is similar to the forewing. In some forms the black tone is reduced on a few black stains.

Variation

''R. hastata'' is extremely variable and splits up into several local races. The

nominotypical subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

''R. h. hastata'' form is large, with the median band strongly broken behind the middle, and intensely black markings. Form ''laxata'' Krulik has the white areas still further widened, the postmedian band much broader than usual, the black median markings narrowed and broken, and no black dots in the postmedian band. Form ''demolita'' Prout is a more extreme form, the black median band only remaining as a small patch on the discocellulars and a small one at the hindmargin.

References

Argent and sable moth (''Rheumaptera hastata'')
on Wildscreen Arkive

External links

Argent and sable at ''UKMoths''

''Lepidoptera e.V.''

''De Vlinderstichting''
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1549034 Rheumaptera Moths of Asia Moths of Europe Moths of Iceland Moths of North America Moths described in 1758 Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus