The spinach (''Eulithis mellinata'') is a

moth Moths are a group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not Butterfly, butterflies. They were previously classified as suborder Heterocera, but the group is Paraphyly, paraphyletic with respect to butterflies (s ...

of the family

Geometridae The geometer moths are moth Moths are a group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not Butterfly, butterflies. They were previously classified as suborder Heterocera, but the group is Paraphyly, paraphyleti ...

. The species was first described by

Johan Christian Fabricius Johann Christian Fabricius (7 January 1745 – 3 March 1808) was a Danish zoologist, specialising in "Insecta", which at that time included all arthropods: insects, arachnids, crustaceans and others. He was a student of Carl Linnaeus, and is co ...

in 1787. It is found throughout much of the

Palearctic The Palearctic or Palaearctic is a biogeographic realm of the Earth, the largest of eight. Confined almost entirely to the Eastern Hemisphere, it stretches across Europe and Asia, north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. Th ...

region and the

Near East The Near East () is a transcontinental region around the Eastern Mediterranean encompassing the historical Fertile Crescent, the Levant, Anatolia, Egypt, Mesopotamia, and coastal areas of the Arabian Peninsula. The term was invented in the 20th ...

though its distribution is rather local due to its specialized

larva A larva (; : larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into their next life stage. Animals with indirect development such as insects, some arachnids, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase ...

l food plant. In the British Isles it is fairly common in England and Wales but much rarer in Scotland and Ireland. Eulithis mellinata SLU

Its

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the opposite wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingsp ...

is 33–38 mm. The forewings are yellow marked with brown

fascia A fascia (; : fasciae or fascias; adjective fascial; ) is a generic term for macroscopic membranous bodily structures. Fasciae are classified as superficial, visceral or deep, and further designated according to their anatomical location. ...

and apical streak with brown chequering on the fringe. The ground colour of the forewings is light yellow to honey yellow. The basal field is slightly darkened. The inner brownish transverse line surrounding the central field is sharply bent at right angles under the anterior margin, the strong violet-brown outer transverse line shows a strong jagged bulge towards the margin. There is a brownish dividing line on the apex. On the white-yellow to plain cream hind wings, the transverse lines are almost extinguished. In newly hatched moths, the fringes are alternately light and dark spotted. This feature fades in the case of specimens flown for longer. The hindwings are rarely seen as the species usually rests in a very distinctive and characteristic way with the forewings held out at 90° to the body with the hindwings hidden behind them. Some other members of the genus such as the northern spinach and barred straw rest in a similar way.Jaan Viidalepp and Axel Hausmann, 2013 In: Axel Hausmann (Hrsg.): ''The Geometrid Moths of Europe''. 1. Auflage. Volume 3: Larentiinae I. Apollo Books, Stenstrup 2013, The species flies at night from June to August and is attracted to light. The

is green with white lines and feeds exclusively on currants. The species overwinters as an

egg An egg is an organic vessel grown by an animal to carry a possibly fertilized egg cell (a zygote) and to incubate from it an embryo within the egg until the embryo has become an animal fetus that can survive on its own, at which point the ...

. #''The flight season refers to the British Isles. This may vary in other parts of the range.''

References

*Chinery, Michael ''Collins Guide to the Insects of Britain and Western Europe'' 1986 (Reprinted 1991) *Skinner, Bernard ''Colour Identification Guide to Moths of the British Isles'' 1984

External links

The Spinach at ''UKMoths''''Lepiforum e.V.''
Cidariini Moths described in 1787 Moths of Europe Taxa named by Johan Christian Fabricius {{Cidariini-stub