''Aplocera efformata'', the lesser treble-bar, 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

Achille Guenée Achille Guenée (sometimes M.A. Guenée; 1 January 1809 – 30 December 1880) was a French lawyer and entomologist. Biography Achille Guenée was born in Chartres and died in Châteaudun. He was educated in Chartres, where he showed a very ear ...

in 1858. It is known from Europe,

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

and

Anatolia Anatolia (), also known as Asia Minor, is a peninsula in West Asia that makes up the majority of the land area of Turkey. It is the westernmost protrusion of Asia and is geographically bounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the south, the Aegean ...

. It has a

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 ...

of 35–41 mm. ''Aplocera efformata'' is difficult to certainly distinguish from its congener ''

Aplocera plagiata The treble-bar or St. John's wort inchworm (''Aplocera plagiata'') 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 throughout the Palearctic regi ...

''. It is best distinguished from this that the innermost of the wing's three dark cross-bands are fairly straight with a marked bend near the front edge, not evenly curved. Moreover, it is mostly slightly smaller, the base colour of the forewing is slightly lighter and the cross-bands slightly darker coloured, so that they seem more pronounced, and the slash at the wing tip is lighter in colour, brownish, not black. The forewings are pointed, light grey with three dark grey cross-bands. The innermost of these is double, quite straight with a marked kink near the front edge. The two outermost are triple and evenly curved. the outermost cross band has two, more or less marked triangular projections on the outer side. At the wing tip there is a short, slightly diffuse, brownish slash. The hindwings are greyish-white. See Townsend et al.Martin C. Townsend, Jon Clifton and Brian Goodey (2010)
''British and Irish Moths: An Illustrated Guide to Selected Difficult Species''
(covering the use of genitalia characters and other features) Butterfly Conservation. There are two to three generations per year with adults on wing from the end of April to mid-November. The

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 ...

e feed on ''

Hypericum perforatum ''Hypericum perforatum'', commonly known as St. John's wort (sometimes perforate St. John's wort or common St. John's wort), is a flowering plant in the family Hypericaceae. It is a hairless, Perennial, perennial herb with woody Root, roots, y ...

''. Larvae can be found from June to August and from September to May. It overwinters in the larval stage. Pupation takes place beneath the soil.

Subspecies

* ''Aplocera efformata efformata'' * ''Aplocera efformata britonata'' Leraut, 1995

References

External links

Lesser Treble-bar at ''UKMoths''''Fauna Europaea''''Lepiforum e.V.''
Aplocera Moths of Europe Moths of Africa Moths of Asia Taxa named by Achille Guenée Moths described in 1858 {{Larentiinae-stub