72.020 Spilosoma lubricipeda (White Ermine)
fw: 18-23mm (Waring & Townend), ws: 34-48mm (MBGBI9); May-Jul, sometimes bivoltine in south Sep-Oct; various herbaceous plants; common throughout GB
ID: Forewing usually a slightly creamy white with a variable number of black spots which may form a curved median row from costa to dorsum; hindwing usually white with at least one central black spot. Forewing ground colour may be creamy-buff or brownish and hindwing creamy white, especially in Scotland, when distinguished from S.luteum (Buff Ermine) by the latter's row of elongate black spots from apex to mid-dorsum. Examples with few spots may resemble S.urticae (Water Ermine) which has a purer white forewing, no black spots on the hindwing and (according to MBGBI9) a yellow S1 to the labial palps (entirely black in S.lubricipeda). Female Diaphora mendica (Muslin Moth) may also be similar but has somewhat translucent wings, a whitish abdomen (yellow in the Spilosoma spp) and averages smaller (fw 17-19mm). Antenna bipectinate in male, dentate-setose in female.
§1 Whiteshill, Gloucestershire; 24/05/2008; male; fw 20.0mm
§2 Minsmere, Suffolk; 11/05/2009; male §3 Foulness, Essex; 05/06/2010; male §4 Strumpshaw Fen, Norfolk; 29/05/2012; male §5 Strumpshaw Fen, Norfolk; 29/05/2012; male §6 St Mary's, Isles of Scilly; 15/10/2014; male; fw 18.4mm §7 New Forest, Hampshire; 17/06/2016; male §8 New Forest, Hampshire; 17/06/2016; female; fw 20.0mm §9 Strumpshaw Fen, Norfolk; 05/06/2017; male; fw 17.0mm All images © Chris Lewis |
§10 Cliburn Moss, Cumbria; 18/06/2019; male
§11 Loch Naver, Sutherland; 19/06/2021; male; fw 17.2mm §12 Loch Rannoch, Perthshire; 15/06/2021; male |
Page published 10/03/2015 (§1-6) | §7&8 added 29/05/2017 | §9 added 13/08/2017 | §10 added 23/01/2020 | §11 added 15/09/2021 |
§12 added 10/10/2021
§12 added 10/10/2021