''Evergestis forficalis'', the garden pebble, is a species of

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 ...

of the family

Crambidae The Crambidae are the grass moth family of lepidopterans. They are variable in appearance, the nominal subfamily Crambinae (grass moths) taking up closely folded postures on grass stems where they are inconspicuous, while other subfamilies includ ...

. It is found in Europe, the

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-Si ...

and North America. The species was described by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, ...

in his 1758 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae'' The species closely resembles ''

Rivula sericealis ''Rivula sericealis'', the straw dot, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Giovanni Antonio Scopoli in his 1763 ''Entomologia Carniolica''. It is found in Europe including the Iberian Peninsula and southern Fenno ...

''. 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 ...

is 25–28 mm. The forewings are whitish-ochreous, disc and apex sometimes tinged with yellowish-brown ; lines fine, dark brown, very obliquely curved, indented beneath costa,first very indistinct towards costa ; two small transversely placed discal spots outlined with dark fuscous, lower larger ; a dark fuscous oblique apical streak ; margins of subterminal line obscurely brownish. The hindwings are ochreous- whitish with a grey posterior line. The larva is yellowish-green ; dorsal and lateral lines darker green ; head yellowishMeyrick, E., 1895 ''A Handbook of British Lepidoptera'' MacMillan, Londo
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Keys and description The length of the forewings 12–14 mm. The moth flies from May to September depending on the location. The larvae feed on

Brassicaceae Brassicaceae () or (the older) Cruciferae () is a medium-sized and economically important family of flowering plants commonly known as the mustards, the crucifers, or the cabbage family. Most are herbaceous plants, while some are shrubs. The l ...

species, such as

Brussels sprout The Brussels sprout is a member of the Gemmifera cultivar group of cabbages (''Brassica oleracea''), grown for its edible buds. The leaf vegetables are typically 1.5–4.0 cm (0.6–1.6 in) in diameter and resemble miniature cabbage ...

and

kale Kale (), or leaf cabbage, belongs to a group of cabbage (''Brassica oleracea'') cultivars grown for their edible leaves, although some are used as ornamentals. Kale plants have green or purple leaves, and the central leaves do not form a head ...

References

External links

"63.057 BF1356 Garden Pebble ''Evergestis forficalis'' (Linnaeus, 1758)"
''UKMoths''. - with pictures
Lepiforum.de
Evergestis Moths described in 1758 Moths of Asia Moths of Europe Moths of North America Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus {{Evergestinae-stub