''Gnophos obfuscata'', commonly known as the Scotch annulet or Scottish annulet, 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

Michael Denis Johann Nepomuk Cosmas Michael Denis, also: ''Sined the Bard'', (27 September 1729 – 29 September 1800) was an Austrian Catholic priest and Jesuit, who is best known as a poet, bibliographer, and lepidopterist. Life Denis was born at Schärdin ...

and

Ignaz Schiffermüller Jeremias "Johann" Ignaz Schiffermüller (; 2 November 1727 – 21 June 1806) was an Austrian naturalist and Jesuit teacher who took a special interest in the Lepidoptera. In order to describe the colours of butterflies, he also looked for a syste ...

in 1775. It can be found in northern, central, and southeastern Europe, as well as in

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

, and the

Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula ( ), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, comprisin ...

. 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 .The forewing has a dark spot and two, often indistinct, dark transverse lines that delimit a trapezoidal field that is sometimes slightly darker than the rest of the wing. It may also have a hint of a white transverse stripe along the outer edge, otherwise it is completely evenly colored. The larva is smooth, greyish-brown with two small warts on the back of the posterior body joint.Bernd Müller, Sven Erlacher, Axel Hausmann, Hossein Rajaei, Pasi Sihvonen and Peder Skou, 2019In: Axel Hausmann (Hrsg.):, 2019 ''The Geometrid Moths of Europe''. 1. Auflage. Volume 6 Ennominae II(Boarmiini, Gnophini, additions to previous volumes), Stenstrup 2015, 978-90-04-38748-5 Adults are on wing in July and August. The larvae feed on various plants found in

heath A heath () is a shrubland habitat found mainly on free-draining infertile, acidic soils and is characterised by open, low-growing woody vegetation. Moorland is generally related to high-ground heaths with—especially in Great Britain—a coole ...

areas, such as ''

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 ''

Saxifraga ''Saxifraga'' is the largest genus in the family Saxifragaceae, containing about 473 species of holarctic perennial plants, known as saxifrages or rockfoils. The Latin word ''saxifraga'' means literally "stone-breaker", from Latin ' ("rock" or " ...

'' species.

Subspecies

*''Gnophos obfuscata obfuscata'' *''Gnophos obfuscata androgynus'' Reisser, 1936 *''Gnophos obfuscata marsicaria'' Dannehl, 1933 *''Gnophos obfuscata nivea'' Schawerda, 1913

References

External links

LepiforumScotch annulet at ''UKMoths''
Ennominae Moths of Europe Taxa named by Michael Denis Taxa named by Ignaz Schiffermüller {{Ennominae-stub