''Asthena albulata'', the small white wave, is a

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. It is known from all of Europe and is also present in the

Near East The ''Near East''; he, המזרח הקרוב; arc, ܕܢܚܐ ܩܪܒ; fa, خاور نزدیک, Xāvar-e nazdik; tr, Yakın Doğu is a geographical term which roughly encompasses a transcontinental region in Western Asia, that was once the hist ...

. The

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

is 14–18 mm. The ground colour of the wings is white (silky in appearance). There are fine brown cross-lines across both forewings and hindwings and a row of black dots along the margin of both wings. ''

Asthena amurensis ''Asthena amurensis'' is a moth in the family Geometridae. It is found in the Russian Far East, Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with Nort ...

'' Stgr., from the Eastern

Palearctic The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Sibe ...

, is smaller, with distinct discal dots but wanting those of the distal margin.Prout, L. B. (1912–16). Geometridae. In A. Seitz (ed.) ''The Macrolepidoptera of the World''. The Palaearctic Geometridae, 4. 479 pp. Alfred Kernen, Stuttgar
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/ref> The larva is slender, pale with large red spots, with quite long, dark setae. There are two generations per year with adults on wing from mid-April to August. The larvae feed on ''

Corylus avellana ''Corylus avellana'', the common hazel, is a species of flowering plant in the birch family Betulaceae. It is native to Europe and western Asia. It is an important component of the hedgerows that were the traditional field boundaries in lowland En ...

'', '' Betula'' and sometimes ''

Carpinus betulus ''Carpinus betulus'', the European or common hornbeam, is a species of tree in the birch family Betulaceae, native to Western Asia and central, eastern, and southern Europe, including southern England. It requires a warm climate for good growth, ...

''. Larvae can be found from May to September. It overwinters as a pupa.

References

External links

Small white wave at ''UKMoths''''Fauna Europaea''
* ttp://www.lepiforum.de/lepiwiki.pl?Asthena_Albulata ''Lepiforum e.V.'' Moths described in 1767 Asthena Moths of Europe Moths of Asia Taxa named by Johann Siegfried Hufnagel {{Asthenini-stub