Hemithea aestivaria

• Subfamily: Geometrinae, Hemitheini
• Wingspan: 26-34 mm
• Flight period: May - Jul
• Spread: Common
• Host plants: Polyphagous

Information

The Hemithea aestivaria also called Common Emerald is a moth of the Geometridae family, subfamily Geometrinae, with a wingspan of 18-25 mm.
It is distributed throughout Europe. * In Italy it is also present in Sicily. *
It is also widespread in Asia and North America, accidentally introduced in British Columbia in 1979.

The wings of the Hemithea aestivaria are emerald green / dark with lighter bands, tending to white, two on the front wings and one on the rear wing. The edges of the wings are usually white and gray checkered. The wings do not tend to fade or lose their green color, as it does some species of the same subfamily.
Head, thorax and abdomen are of the same background color as the wings.

Univoltine moth, mainly nocturnal, it can already be glimpsed at dusk from late June to late September in a single generation. It can be found on the edges or in clearings of woods in parks and gardens.

The caterpillar, which varies in color from green to brown, sometimes with both colors with reddish spots, has characteristic black V-shaped marks on the back. The pupa is elongated, light brown in color with a brown / black line that crosses the abdominal segments, the area relating to the wings is dark brown. *

The Cremaster has a series (eight) of filiform hooked outgrowths. **

The larvae feed on many species of various families such as Betulaceae, Fagaceae, Grossulariaceae, Malvaceae, Rhamnaceae, Rosaceae and Salicaceae, for this purpose we remember in a non-exhaustive way Crataegus sp., Prunus sp., Betula sp., Salix sp., Quercus sp., Tilia sp. and Carpinus.


* Lepidoptera mundi https://lepidoptera.eu/ - Fauna Europea https://fauna-eu.org/
** Bestimmungshilfe für die in Europa nachgewiesenen Schmetterlingsarten - http://lepiforum.de/
*** Powell, JA e PA Opler. 2009. Moths of western North America. Berkeley: University of California Press