''Apeira syringaria'', the lilac beauty, 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 ...

. It is found throughout

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

and east across 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 ...

to the

Russian Far East The Russian Far East ( rus, Дальний Восток России, p=ˈdalʲnʲɪj vɐˈstok rɐˈsʲiɪ) is a region in North Asia. It is the easternmost part of Russia and the Asia, Asian continent, and is coextensive with the Far Easte ...

and

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. The

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 38–42 mm. The length of the forewings is 19–22 mm. The front wings are coloured violet-grey to bright reddish brown and yellowish in the marginal field. There are white marks along the costa. The interior cross line is pinkish white and broken under the costa (toward the basal field). The narrow central band is red-brown and continues on the hindwings. The outer cross line is dark on the front edge becoming pink white adjoining on the hind wings a dark row of dots. A pink-white spot is located off the apex of the wing. In rest, the front margins of the wings are curiously folded. This, in combination with the colour and pattern give a crumpled leaf-like appearance. The caterpillars reach a length of up to 30 millimeters. . On the seventh segment there is an eye-catching pair of curved extensions; smaller dorsal humps are located on segments five and six. They are pale ochre-coloured with dark olive-brown or purple-brown markings . The head capsule is grey-brown. In a resting position, the caterpillars do not sit stretched out like most other looper caterpillars, but remain curved to resemble the dried fruit capsules of the lilac. The moth flies from June to July . The caterpillars feed on

lilac ''Syringa'' is a genus of 12 currently recognized species of flowering woody plants in the olive family or Oleaceae called lilacs. These lilacs are native to woodland and scrub from southeastern Europe to eastern Asia, and widely and commonly ...

honeysuckle Honeysuckles are arching shrubs or Vine#Twining vines, twining vines in the genus ''Lonicera'' () of the family Caprifoliaceae. The genus includes 158 species native to northern latitudes in North America, Eurasia, and North Africa. Widely kno ...

and

privet A privet is a flowering plant in the genus ''Ligustrum''. The genus contains about 50 species of erect, deciduous or evergreen shrubs or trees, with a native distribution from Europe to tropical and subtropical Asia, and with one species each ...

.HOSTS database, National History Museum, London
Retrieved 2024 This species overwinters as a larva. Ecology: found in woodland, heaths and occasionally fens.

References

Notes

#''The flight season refers to the

British Isles The British Isles are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner Hebrides, Inner and Outer Hebr ...

. This may vary in other parts of the range.''

External links

Lilac beauty on UKmothsFauna EuropaeaLepiforum.deVlindernet.nl
Ennomini Moths of Europe Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus Moths described in 1758 {{Ennominae-stub