Least Carpet (Idaea rusticata)

Least Carpet (Idaea rusticata (Denis & Schiffermüller, 1775))

Scientific name: Idaea rusticata (Denis & Schiffermüller, 1775)
Common name: Least Carpet
Other names: Other scientific name: Idaea vulpinaria.
French name: Phalène rustique
Order: Lepidoptera
Suborder: Heterocera
Family: Geometridae
Subfamily: Sterrhinae
Wingspan: 19-21 mm, moths of the second brood are smaller.
Biotope: Dry and hot habitats, bushes and grasslands (dead leaves and low growing plants).
Geographic area: Europe, missing in Ireland and in Scandinavia. Asia Minor. North Africa.
Flight time: June to early October.
Number of generations : 2
Caterpillar: Greyish-brown with small ochre warts.
Host plant: Ivy (Hedera helix), Traveller's Joy (Clematis vitalba) and other plants.

The Least Carpet is a small whitish moth with typical but rather variable greyish brown marks.
The base of the fore wings is dark brown on the costal edge.
The fore wings are crossed by a blackish brown median band with undulated edges. This band is darker near the costal edge.
There is an elongated black spot at the centre of each wing. Those on the fore wings are difficult to see as they are located inside the dark median band.
The Least carpet is sometimes attracted to light and comes to the windows.
Idaea mustelata which is found in North Africa and in the Iberian Peninsula, then potentially in south-western France, shows a dark median band on the fore wings which strongly narrows at the back. It ends as a sharp point on the inner edge of the wing. This band is still rather wide when reaching the inner edge of the wing on Idaea rusticata.
Idaea filicata which is found in southern Europe east to Asia Minor, shows the elongated black spots on the fore wings just located on the edge of the median band, on the marginal side. These same spots are clearly inside the dark median band on Idaea rusticata.

Least Carpet (Idaea rusticata) - Saône-et-Loire, France - June 26th 2011

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