About the Clouded Border
The clouded border (Lomaspilis marginata) is a moth of the family Geometridae. The species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae. It is distributed across most of Europe to the Urals, western and central Siberia, Transbaikalia, Kazakhstan, Tian-Shan, northern Mongolia and parts of the Near East.
This is a very distinctive species with white wings marked with black blotches around the margins. The amount of black varies, with the males usually (though not always) having more extensive black areas than the females. Occasionally almost entirely white or black individuals are seen, although this is rare. The wingspan is 24–28 mm. Lomaspilis marginata is extremely variable. Linnaeus's form has complete black border to both wings, also on the forewing additional spots or patches at base and middle of costa.
Aberrations: ab. nigrofasciata Schoyen: the median band, at least on the forewing, is complete, the marginal area is normal. ab. mediofasciata Hofner: has a complete median band but no marginal band. ab. dumeei de Joannis: lacks also the basal costal patch.
ab. suffusa [Prout]: has the ground colour suffused with smoky yellow... Wikipedia →