| Scarce Umber (Agriopis aurantiaria (Hübner, 1799)) |
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Scientific name: Agriopis aurantiaria (Hübner, 1799) Common name: Scarce Umber French name: Hibernie orangée Order: Lepidoptera Suborder: Heterocera Family: Geometridae Subfamily: Ennominae Wingspan: 27-35 mm. Biotope: Forests, parks. Geographic area: All Europe and the Transcaucasia (Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan). Flight time: Mid-October to early December. Number of generations : 1 Caterpillar: Brownish with a longitudinal black stripe on the flanks. The head and the other end are reddish brown. Host plant: Many deciduous trees but mainly Birches (Betula), Oaks (Quercus) and Elms (Ulmus). |
The Scarce Umber shows an important sexual dimorphism. Females are grey and almost wingless. Males have yellowish orange triangular fore wings with rounded apex. You can see dark but weakly contrasted markings including a straight median stripe and a thin and slightly flexuous post-median stripe. The hind wings are slightly paler. Male Mottled Umbers (Erannis defoliaria) have a black discal spot on the fore wings which is missing on Scarce Umbers (notice that, sometimes, this spot may be missing on some Mottled Umbers). Scarce Umbers over winter as eggs. |
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It is not possible to differentiate caterpillars of the Scarce Umber species (Agriopis aurantiaria) from those of the Dotted Border species (Agriopis marginaria) on picture. So we will just list this one as Agriopis sp. |
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The only way to precisely identify which species it is is to pick and grow the caterpillar. If everything goes well you will get the result with the imago a few months later, Scarce Umber (Agriopis aurantiaria) or Dotted Border (Agriopis marginaria). |
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Here is a lighter coloured caterpillar that I put upon the lenses cap to take the picture. Even for this pale form it is not possible to differentiate caterpillars of the Scarce Umber species (Agriopis aurantiaria) from those of the Dotted Border species (Agriopis marginaria). |
André Bon December 2016