Luminary Oddities · Natural history & art
Angle Shades
Phlogophora meticulosa
Lepidoptera / Noctuidae
Phlogophora meticulosa folds its angular, olive-and-pink wings into the outline of a withered leaf. This migratory European moth occupies gardens, woodland edges and coastal habitats, and its caterpillars vary from bright green to dark brown.
Read the species accountAt a glance
- Wing form ↘
- Wings fold longitudinally into a pleated, leaf-like resting outline. [2]
- Movement ↘
- The species is migratory and can be numerous at coastal sites. [2]
Identity and classification
Morphology and identification
Angular olive, brown and pink wing fields fold lengthways into a withered-leaf outline. [2]
The corrugated wings do not lie in a single flat plane. [1]
Distribution and habitat
The moth occurs across most of Europe and throughout Britain and Ireland, where it is more frequent in the south. Parks, gardens, woodland edges and coastal areas are characteristic habitats. [1]
Life cycle
Britain has at least two principal annual flight periods, with occasional adults in other months. [2]
Larvae range from bright green to dark brown. Food plant affects early-instar colour, while later coloration involves several genetic loci. [1]
Feeding and host plants
Caterpillars feed on a broad range of herbaceous plants. [2]
Behaviour
Angle shades migrate, and arrivals can produce large concentrations at coastal localities in Britain. [2]
Distinctive biology
The Wytham Woods female’s 539-megabase assembly placed most sequence into 31 chromosome-scale scaffolds, including Z; other scaffolds were compatible with W. [1]
Ecology
British monitoring summarised in the genome account found both flight-period peaks approximately three weeks earlier over the preceding 30 years. [1]
Display and care
Keep the enclosure closed and display it in indirect light, away from heat and damp conditions. Handle the frame by its edges and clean only its exterior according to the maker’s instructions.
Sources and further reading
- The genome sequence of the angle shades moth, Phlogophora meticulosa (Linnaeus, 1758) ↗
Boyes and Holland; Wellcome Open Research 7:89 (2022) · Accessed 2026-10-13
- Angle Shades: Phlogophora meticulosa ↗
Ian Kimber, UKMoths · Accessed 2026-10-13
Sources checked 2026-10-13. Illustrations · Luminary Oddities.
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