''Epirrita filigrammaria'', the small autumnal moth or small autumnal carpet, 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

Gottlieb August Wilhelm Herrich-Schäffer Gottlieb (formerly D. Gottlieb & Co.) was an American arcade game corporation based in Chicago, Illinois. It is best known for creating a vast line of pinball machines and arcade games (including ''Q*bert'') throughout much of the 20th century. ...

in 1846. It is found in Scotland, northern England, Wales and Ireland. ''Epirrita filigrammaria'' is

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 ...

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 ...

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 30–38 mm. The ground colour is greyish brown. There are a few small dark bands across the forewings (sometimes obscure) and a well-defined fringe along the edge of the forewings. It is very similar to its congeners , the autumnal moth ('' Epirrita autumnata''), the November moth (''

Epirrita dilutata The November moth (''Epirrita dilutata'') is a moth of the family Geometridae. The species was first described by Michael Denis and Ignaz Schiffermüller in 1775. It can be found in the Palearctic realm in western Europe from central Scandinavia ...

'' ) and the pale November moth ('' Epirrita christyi'') . 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. The moth flies in August and September. The larvae feed on heather (''

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 ...

''). South, Richard (1909). ''The Moths of the British Isles Second Series''. "Hydriomeninae". via – Wikisource.

References

External links

Small Autumnal Moth at ''UKMoths''''Lepiforum e.V.''
Operophterini Moths described in 1846 Taxa named by Gottlieb August Wilhelm Herrich-Schäffer {{Larentiinae-stub