30 June 2013 - Pretty Little Pug.

We found a splendid pug a few days ago in the moth trap, meaning on my part that it wasn't some shade of grey and didn't look like all the other pugs of the world. It was extremely windy so I only had a few seconds to snap some pictures before it flew off. I believe it's a Foxglove Pug (Eupithecia pulchellata), though sometimes the Foxglove Pug is confused with the Toadflax Pug due to its coloration and pattern. The Foxglove Pug is a bit bigger, however, which this one was. We also have a good number of foxgloves, the moth's foodplant, in the garden, another good indicator. Some are even taller than I am!

Foxglove Pug (Eupithecia pulchellata)

In another post I mentioned that eu 'well, good, goodly' and pithex or pithekos 'a dwarf' were meant to describe the pugs due to their attractive appearance and small size, both of which I can attribute to the Foxglove Pug. Its species description pulchellus 'pretty little' even emphasizes this fact! This makes 269 on our species list.

- Post by Jane Wu