Scopula ternata

Scopula ternata, the smoky wave, is a moth of the family Geometridae, described by Franz von Paula Schrank in 1802. It is mainly found in northern and parts of central Europe, with isolated populations in southern and south-eastern Europe. Its range reaches west to eastern France, eastern Belgium and Scotland, with an isolated population in the Pyrenees, north to the polar regions, south to the Alps, and east through central and northern Russia to the Ural and through Siberia to the Yenisei River. The wingspan is 24 to 29 millimetres in males and 21 to 25 millimetres in females, and the wings are pale brown to yellowish with a grey dusting that is usually heavier in the males. The caterpillar is long, slender and reddish-grey, with a double dark but interrupted line down the back and a wide, conspicuous line along the side. The moth flies from May to July in warmer regions and from June to August in northern Europe, and the larva feeds mainly on bilberry, bog bilberry, heather and creeping willow.