The Rannoch Brindled Beauty (Lycia lapponaria) is a moth

Moth

A moth is an insect closely related to the butterfly, both being of the order Lepidoptera. Moths form the majority of this order; there are thought to be 150,000 to 250,000 different species of moth , with thousands of species yet to be described...

 of the Geometridae family. It is found in most of the northern part of the Palearctic ecozone, including Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

.

The wingspan

Wingspan

The wingspan of an airplane or a bird, is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777 has a wingspan of about ; and a Wandering Albatross caught in 1965 had a wingspan of , the official record for a living bird.The term wingspan, more technically extent, is...

 is 26-34 mm for males. Females are wingless. The males have whitish forewings marked with black and both sexes have red markings on the thorax and abdomen. Adult males are on wing from March to April in the south and from May to mid June in the north. There is one generation per year.

The larvae feed on Betula nana, Myrica gale

Myrica gale

Myrica gale is a species of flowering plant in the genus Myrica, native to northern and western Europe and parts of northern North America. It is a deciduous shrub growing to 1–2 m tall. Common names include Bog Myrtle and Sweet Gale...

and Calluna vulgaris. Larvae can be found in July. It overwinters as a pupa.

Subspecies

• Lycia lapponaria lapponaria
• Lycia lapponaria scotica (Harrison, 1916) (Scotland)