Chlorissa viridata

Chlorissa viridata, the small grass emerald, is a moth of the family Geometridae. The species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae. It is found from western Europe to the eastern Palearctic.

Chlorissa viridata
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Geometridae
Genus: Chlorissa
Species:
C. viridata
Binomial name
Chlorissa viridata
Synonyms
  • Phalaena (Geometra) viridata Linnaeus, 1758
  • Phalaena volutata Fabricius, 1775
  • Phalaena herbacea Fourcroy, 1785
  • Geometra prasinata Werneburg, 1864
  • Geometra viridaria

Technical description and variation
For a key to the terms used, see Glossary of entomology terms.

The base colour of the forewings is green, but soon fades to yellow. Face red-brown, fillet white, crown light green. Antennae in male filiform. Forewings light green ; costal edge whitish - ochreous ; first line faint, curved ; second nearly straight, whitish ; cilia white, basal half pale greenish. Hindwings as forewings, but first line absent; termen very obtusely angulated. Larva pale green, with purplish dorsal sometimes connected marks ; subdorsal line whitish ; lateral ridge pale yellow ; head purplish.[1] The wingspan is 24–27 mm.

Biology

The larvae feed on Calluna vulgaris, Betula and Salix species (including Salix repens). Other recorded food plants include Empetrum nigrum, Myrica gale, Vaccinium uliginosum, Quercus, Potentilla, Galium, Hieracium, Artemisia, Ononis, Clematis, Prunus, Crataegus, Corylus, Rubus, Erica, Ulex, Genista, Lotus corniculatus, Crataegus and Ledum palustre. Larvae can be found from July to August. The species overwinters as a pupa.

Etymology

The scientific name viridata refers to the green colour of the wings (viridis means green).

Subspecies
  • Chlorissa viridata viridata (central and southern Europe)
  • Chlorissa viridata melinaria (Herrich-Schäffer, 1856) (southern Urals)
  • Chlorissa viridata insigniata (Staudinger, 1901) (mountains of central Asia)

References
  1. Meyrick, E. (1895). A Handbook of British Lepidoptera. MacMillan, London. This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  • Kimber, Ian. "70.306 BF1670 Small Grass Emerald Chlorissa viridata (Linnaeus, 1758)". UKMoths. Retrieved 10 December 2020.
  • Lepidoptera of Belgium
  • Lepiforum e. V.


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