''Coscinia cribraria'', the speckled footman, is a species of

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 ...

belonging to the subfamily

Arctiinae The Arctiinae (formerly called the family Arctiidae) are a large and diverse subfamily of moths with around 11,000 species found all over the world, including 6,000 neotropical species.Scoble, MJ. (1995). ''The Lepidoptera: Form, Function and D ...

within the large

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

Erebidae The Erebidae are a family (biology), family of moths in the superfamily Noctuoidea. The family is among the largest families of moths by species count and contains a wide variety of well-known macromoth groups. The family includes the underwin ...

. This moth has a widespread distribution in 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 ...

Taxonomy

''Coscinia cribraria'' was first described as ''Phalaena (Bombyx) cribraria'' by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné,#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. was a Swedish biologist and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the modern system of naming o ...

in his 1758 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae''. Linnaeus's ''P. cribraria'' was designated as the

type species In International_Code_of_Zoological_Nomenclature, zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the spe ...

of the genus '' Coscinia'' by

George Hampson Sir George Francis Hampson, 10th Baronet (14 January 1860 – 15 October 1936) was an English entomologist. Hampson studied at Charterhouse School and Exeter College, Oxford. He travelled to India to become a tea-planter in the Nilgiri Hills ...

in 1901, the genus having been proposed by

Jacob Hübner Jacob Hübner (20 June 1761 – 13 September 1826, in Augsburg) was a German entomologist. He was the author of ''Sammlung Europäischer Schmetterlinge'' (1796–1805), a founding work of entomology. Scientific career Hübner was the author of '' ...

in 1819. This is a polytypic species with a number of described subspecies. For example in the United Kingdom there is an

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

subspecies ''C. c. bivittata'' occurs in

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

ad the

New Forest The New Forest is one of the largest remaining tracts of unenclosed pasture land, heathland and forest in Southern England, covering southwest Hampshire and southeast Wiltshire. It was proclaimed a royal forest by William the Conqueror, featu ...

while a migrant subspecies from continental Europe ''C. c. arenaria'' occurs as a scarce migrant in eastern England. Other taxa from Iberia, such as ''Coscinia benderi'' , ''C. c. rippertii'' and ''C. c. ibicenca'' have also been shown to be subspecies of ''C. ccribaria'', having previously been regarded as separate species. The genus ''Coscinia'' is placed within the

subtribe Subtribe is a taxonomic category ranking which is below the rank of tribe and above genus. The standard suffix for a subtribe is -ina (in animals) or -inae (in plants). The first use of this word dates back to the late 19th century. An example of ...

Callimorphina The Callimorphina are a subtribe of woolly bear moths in the family Erebidae. The subtribe was described by Francis Walker in 1865. Many of these moths are easily confused with butterflies, being quite brightly colored and somewhat diurnal. Th ...

within the

tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide use of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. The definition is contested, in part due to conflict ...

Arctiini The Arctiini are a tribe (biology), tribe of Arctiinae (moth), tiger moths in the family Erebidae. Systematics The tribe was previously treated as a higher-level taxon, the subfamily Arctiinae, within the lichen and tiger moth family, Arctiida ...

in the subfamily Arctiinae, part of the large family Erebidae.

Description

''Coscinia cribraria'' has a forewing which has a background colour of dirty white marked with black streaks along the wings and crossbands made up of dark dots, both of which vary in extent. The subspecies ''arenaria'' has an almost pure white forewing. The speckled footman has a wingspan of between .

Distribution and habitat

''Coscinia cribraria'' has a wide Palearctic distribution being found from Northwestern Africa Iberia and southern Great Britain east to China and Mongolia. In Europe, north of the Alps, the speckled footman is typically found on sandy heaths and open sandy pine forests. To the south of the Alps, it inhabits on dry mountain meadows with stony or rocky areas and around the Mediterranean this species can be found in habitats like maquis and in open forests. Arctiidae - Coscinia cribraria

Biology

''Coscinia cribraria'' feeds on a wide variety of plants and caterpillars have been recorded feeding on bristle beny ('' Agrostis curtisii''), bell heather (''

Erica cinerea ''Erica cinerea'', the bell heather, is a species of flowering plant in the heath family Ericaceae, native to western and central Europe. Description It is a low, spreading shrub growing to tall, with fine needle-like leaves long arranged in ...

''), cross-leaved heath (''

Erica tetralix ''Erica tetralix'', the cross-leaved heath, is a species of flowering plant in the family Ericaceae, native to western Europe. Description It is a perennial subshrub with glandular leaves in whorls of four (whence the name). Appearing in summe ...

''), ling (''

Calluna vulgaris ''Calluna vulgaris'', common heather, ling, or simply heather, is the sole species in the genus ''Calluna'' in the flowering plant family Ericaceae. It is a low-growing evergreen shrub growing to tall, or rarely to and taller, and is found wide ...

'') and bilberry (''

Vaccinium myrtillus ''Vaccinium myrtillus'' or European blueberry is a Holarctic realm, holarctic species of shrub with edible fruit of blue color, known by the common names bilberry, blaeberry, wimberry, and whortleberry. It is more precisely called common bilberr ...

''). However, like other footman moths, the lichens in the genus ''

Cladonia ''Cladonia'' is a genus of moss-like lichenized fungi in the family Cladoniaceae. They are the primary food source for reindeer/caribou. ''Cladonia'' species are of economic importance to reindeer-herders, such as the Sami in Scandinavia or th ...

'' are an important component of the habitat and larval diet of the speckled footman. In southern England the eggs are laid in June, mainly on ling and bristle bent with a few females being observed to oviposit during daylight hours. The eggs are laid high up on the stems of the plants. The caterpillars overwinter as larvae and pupate in the June following their hatching, creating rather flimsy cocoons among grass and heather. At altitudes of less than in this species' range south of the Alps the speckled footman is bivoltine with

imago In biology, the imago (Latin for "image") is the last stage an insect attains during its metamorphosis, its process of growth and development; it is also called the ''imaginal'' stage ("imaginal" being "imago" in adjective form), the stage in wh ...

s on the wing in May and June, as well as August and September.

Conservation

''Coscinia cribaria'' is common in the southern part ofits range but in northern Europe it is vulnerable to the destrucion of the open sandy heaths it prefers. In the United Kingdom it is classified as nationally rare meaning that it has been recorded from fewer than 15, or fewer,

hectad A hectad is an area 10 km x 10 km square. The term has a particular use in connection with the British Ordnance Survey national grid, and then refers to any of the 100 such squares which make up a standard 100 km x 100 km myri ...

References

External links

''Moths and Butterflies of Europe and North Africa''''Fauna Europaea''''Lepiforum e.V.''
{{Taxonbar, from=Q237571 Callimorphina Moths described in 1758 Moths of Europe Moths of Asia Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus