Cyclophora (Cyclophora) annularia

• Subfamily: Sterrhinae, Cosymbiini
• Wingspan: 21-26 mm
• Flight period: May - Sep
• Spread: Common
• Host plants: Aceraceae, Betulaceae, Corylaceae

Information

The Cyclophora annularia also called The Mocha is a moth of the Geometridae family, subfamily Sterrhinae, with a wingspan of 21-26 mm.
It is distributed in most of Europe, it is absent from Portugal, Ireland, Norway and northern Russia. *
In Italy it is absent from the islands. * Its distribution extends in the Middle East to Iran.

The wings of the Cyclophora annularia have a straw yellow background color with a characteristic jagged brown-black line which crosses all four wings, in the post-discal region, with a band of the same color, faded towards the costa. There are circular spots, empty in the center, in correspondence with the median areas of the wings. Another jagged line is visible in the disc region. An undefined, blurred band is visible in the submarginal region.

The hind wings are of the same color and cone similar designs of the front wings. Head and thorax are in the background color of the wings.

bivoltine moth adults are visible from April to June in the first generation and from July to September in the second. It frequents the deciduous forests and the undergrowth, even humid, gardens, scrubs and parks.

The caterpillar is light green with a brown head with brown spots. It pupates on the leaves of the host plant with which it usually falls to the ground in autumn. It overwinters at the pupa stage. The pupa is light green with some white dorsal lines, the Creamaster is yellowish white with red / purplish apex. Two whitish bumps are visible above the head area.

The larva feeds on Aceraceae on Acer sp. and Acer campestre in particular, but it has also been reported on Betualceae (Betula sp.) and Corylaceae (Carpinus).


* Lepidoptera mundi https://lepidoptera.eu/ - Fauna Europea https://fauna-eu.org/
** Bestimmungshilfe für die in Europa nachgewiesenen Schmetterlingsarten - http://lepiforum.de/