Coscinia cribraria, the speckled footman, is a species of moth belonging to the subfamily Arctiinae within the large family Erebidae. This moth has a widespread distribution in the Palearctic.
Coscinia cribraria has a forewing which has a background colour of dirty white marked with black streaks along the wings and crossbands made up of dark dots, both of which vary in extent. The subspecies arenaria has an almost pure white forewing. The speckled footman has a wingspan of between 30 and 35 mm (1.2 and 1.4 in).
Coscinia cribraria has a wide Palearctic distribution being found from Northwestern Africa Iberia and southern Great Britain east to China and Mongolia. In Europe, north of the Alps, the speckled footman is typically found on sandy heaths and open sandy pine forests. To the south of the Alps, it inhabits on dry mountain meadows with stony or rocky areas and around the Mediterranean this species can be found in habitats like maquis and in open forests.
Coscinia cribraria feeds on a wide variety of plants and caterpillars have been recorded feeding on bristle beny (Agrostis curtisii), bell heather (Erica cinerea), cross-leaved heath (Erica tetralix), ling (Calluna vulgaris) and bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus). However, like other footman moths, the lichens in the genus Cladonia are an important component of the habitat and larval diet of the speckled footman. In southern England the eggs are laid in June, mainly on ling and bristle bent with a few females being observed to oviposit during daylight hours. The eggs are laid high up on the stems of the plants. The caterpillars overwinter as larvae and pupate in the June following their hatching, creating rather flimsy cocoons among grass and heather. At altitudes of less than 1,000 m (3,300 ft) in this species' range south of the Alps the speckled footman is bivoltine with imagos on the wing in May and June, as well as August and September.
