Maiden's Blush

Cyclophora punctaria

Maiden's Blush (Cyclophora punctaria)
Image: Wikipedia / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA, wikipedia

Cyclophora punctaria, the maiden's blush, is a moth of the family Geometridae. The species was first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae. The species is mainly prevalent in Central and Eastern Europe. In the north, its distribution extends to southern Fennoscandia and the British Isles, in the west via France to parts of northern Spain, in the south via Italy, the Balkan Peninsula to Asia Minor. The eastern border of the distribution is roughly the Ural. In the Caucasus area, the nominate subspecies is replaced by the subspecies C. punctaria fritzae. The range of this subspecies extends as far as Iran.Cyclophora punctaria is found mainly in wooded areas with oak scrub and oak forests. In Central Europe it rises up to 700 metres in the hills, rarely up to 1,200 metres in the Alps, and regularly rises to 1,300 metres in southern Europe. Source

Where it is now

In the last 8 weeks this insect was recorded 38 times across 4 areas (each area is a 5 degree square).

See the Maiden's Blush on the live map

Movement and weather

Over the weeks it was present in the past year, its centre in Europe ranged from 49°N in July to 59°N in August, about 1,100 km apart.

Arrival dates

The week it was first heard regularly in each region, after at least six weeks away. Dates differ from south to north, so a region has a range.

RegionFirst arrivalLast arrivalTypical peakAreas
Europe18 May 202618 May 20263 August 20262

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Figures are effort corrected and come from automatic sound identification, which makes mistakes. How this is measured and how it compares with human observers.