Species Eulithis testata - The Chevron - Hodges#7201

7201

Chevron Moth

Eulithis testata (Linnaeus, 1761)

Geometera testata Linnaeus, 1761 (1)

wingspan 25-40 mm

Adult: FW light yellow, orangish, or brownish with sharply-bent medial and PM lines; straight white-bordered dark apical dash runs at right-angles to white-bordered dark upper section of PM line (forming a T shape whose two lines don't quite meet). HW pale grayish-white on basal two-thirds, separated from light yellowish or brownish subterminal area by an indistinct white PM line

Larva: body long, slender, pale gray or yellowish with thin dark dorsal stripe

Newfoundland to New Jersey, west to Montana and British Columbia, north to Yukon and Northwest Territories

also occurs throughout Eurasia, east to Japan

acidic bogs in northern forests

adults fly from June to September

larvae in May and June

larvae feed on leaves of alder, birch, blueberry, gooseberry, poplar, willow

overwinters as an egg; one generation per year

Larva; adult

Dimorphic Eulithis (E. molliculata) is similar but has a single-toothed apical dash that curves around to enclose a reddish apical patch, and its hindwing is uniformly light yellowish with 3 indistinct lines

E. propulsata lacks white borders to its apical dash and upper section of PM line

Linnaeus, C. 1761. Fauna svecica, (1262): 331. (1)