The Mottled Umber is a moth of the family Geometridae. It is a common species throughout much of the Palearctic region.
Similar species: Moths And Butterflies
By Pudding4brains
Public Domain
Uploaded Nov 19, 2019. Captured in Den Alerdinckweg 4A, 8055 PE Laag Zuthem, Netherlands.
comments (13)
Normally the female will be climbing around on the stem of a suitable host tree to deposit her eggs.
This female was way off track, sitting on a wall some 30m from the nearest tree, so even if the males will come to her and mate with her, where is she going to leave her eggs so that the young caterpillars will find food? Not going to happen, as she can't fly to the nearest tree - she would have to get down from the wall and struggle around over 30m of rubbish/grass/dirt track to get to a tree ... Posted 5 years ago
:o) Posted 5 years ago
Female mottled umber (Erannis defoliaria) moths are apterous―they are completely wingless! This is a rare phenomenon that occurs in less than 1% of moth species. In species that exhibit this trait, it’s usually only the females that are wingless. Males of the same species are winged because their reproductive success depends on their mobility. They need to go off and find females to mate with. Thus, far fewer species also have flightless males.
It may seem disadvantageous for a female moth to be wingless, but the reality is quite the opposite. In fact, many flightless females are still highly mobile thanks to their well-developed legs. They can walk, climb, and jump with ease. So, they are still able to disperse as desired. In contrast, other species with flightless females don’t venture far from their pupal cocoons, even if their legs are strong and agile. It’s assumed that they don’t disperse because there is simply no reason to. There is no advantage to leaving an already favorable spot in the hope of finding something better. Furthermore, being flightless benefits a female’s reproductive success. If a female can’t fly, she can save her energy and nutrients that would otherwise be used to build flight muscles. Those resources can instead be used to produce more and/or larger eggs, which provide a substantial benefit to the developing embryos. {Spotted in the Netherlands by JungleDragon moderator, Pudding4brains} #JungleDragon #moth #apterousmoth #flightlessmoth #Erannisdefoliaria Posted 5 years ago