Perineura rubi (Panzer, 1803)

Perineura rubi

Recorded widely, although rather locally, throughout most of mainland Britain (Musgrove, 2023).

The two sexes are very different. The male is more commonly encountered.

Male: The head is white but with a large frontal and vertical dark patch continuing onto the post-occipital area. The antennae is black on the basal two segments and brown thereafter. The thorax is black above but marked on the pronotal margin, tegulae, lateral mesonotal lobes, scutellum and postscutellum. The abdomen is bright yellow above but the basal tergites are white bordered with black. The legs are pale yellow with white coxae, trochanters and bases of femora. The wings have a brown stigma and brown venation.

Female: The head and thorax are coloured much as the male but with more extensive black so that the white is only on the mandible bases, labrum, front of clypeus and narrowly on the upper, inner orbits. The antennae are black from segments one to six and white for seven to nine. The abdomen is mostly black above but with orange on the tergites dorsally becoming more extensive and whiter towards the apex of the abdomen. The legs are more or less dark. The wings have brown venation but a bicolourous white and brown stigma.

Perineura rubi larval food plant is unknown but associated with dewberry and raspberry in sunny glades in beech and oak woods.

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Size: 7 - 8mm

Status: Least Concern
Status: None

Distribution: England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland

Flight period: May to July

Plant associations: Rubus caesius and Rubus idaeus (dewberry and raspberry)