Orthonama obstipata | |
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Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Class: | Insecta |
Order: | Lepidoptera |
Family: | Geometridae |
Genus: | Orthonama |
Species: | O. obstipata
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Binomial name | |
Orthonama obstipata (Fabricius, 1794)
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Synonyms | |
Numerous, see text |
Orthonama obstipata, the gem, is a moth of the family Geometridae. The species was first described by Johan Christian Fabricius in 1794. It is a cosmopolitan species. In continental Europe though in the northeast, its range does not significantly extend beyond the Baltic region and it is absent from northern Russia. This well-flying species is prone to vagrancy and able to cross considerable distances of the open sea; it can thus be regularly found on the British Isles (though mainly in the south) and even on Iceland.[1]
Under its junior synonyms Nycterosea brunneipennis and Geometra fluviata, the gem is the type species of genera Nycterosea and Percnoptilota, respectively. The latter is treated as a junior synonym of the former, but Nycterosea, though usually included in Orthonama these days, may warrant recognition as an independent genus after all.[2]