About Aleucis distinctata (Herrich-Schäffer, 1839)
Aleucis distinctata, commonly known as the sloe carpet or Kent mocha, is a moth species belonging to the family Geometridae. It was first described by Gottlieb August Wilhelm Herrich-Schäffer in 1839. This species has a distribution ranging from Europe east to Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Turkmenistan. The wingspan of adults measures 27–31 mm. The head is fuscous. Forewings are fuscous and sprinkled with darker scaling. The first forewing line is barely curved, while the second is subsinuate, waved, and dark fuscous; a dark fuscous discal spot is also present on the forewings. Hindwings are whitish-fuscous, with darker sprinkling along the dorsum, plus a discal dot and a waved second line. Fully grown larvae are brown-grey, with distinct markings: segments 5–8 bear a dark V-shaped dorsal mark, segments 1 and 2 have a black transverse line, segments 8 and 9 have whitish lateral patches, segments 3 and 4 have a short oblique black lateral streak, and segments 6–9 have black lateral spots. This species is very similar to Theria rupicapraria, but is smaller, has a simple antenna, and has white dorsal dots on the abdomen. A local aberration in Central Europe, ab. contrastaria Fuchs, has a darkened median wing area. The previously described orientalis Stgr., now recognized as a full separate species, is the common eastern form, which is paler and more greyish, found in Asia Minor, Palestine, and Mardin. The larvae of Aleucis distinctata feed on Prunus spinosa.
