| | Insects of Britain and Ireland: the genera of grass moths (Pyralidae-Crambinae and Schoenobiinae) |
Adults. Face without a conical hairy prominence. Proboscis functional.
Wingspan 19–22 mm (C. craterella), or 20–27 mm (C. linetella). Forewings broad, cream-coloured to yellowish with conspicuous golden- or rusty-brown interneural streaks of which the two in the apex are thickened and coalescent in C. craterella only; a thick, ferrugineous, slightly angled or sinuous median almost transverse cross-line, a finer postmedian one obtusely angled in the middle, and a series of small black interneural dots in the ochreous-ferrugineous termen; the cilia brownish. The fringe glistening-metallic. Termen non-sinuate. Ground colour of the forewings whitish to ochreous. Forewings very conspicuously patterned with contrasting colours. The patterning complex; comprising both longitudinal streaking and transverse markings. Forewings with a median line; not transversely dark-lined towards the termen; without a strong white median streak; without conspicuous white marks at or near the apex; without a scattering of large black scales. Forewing vein 7 arising from vein 8. Hindwings pale grey to dark grey; plain; pale brownish or fuscous, tending darker terminally and apically, the termen with a very fine dark line or dotted, the cilia white.
Distribution and habitats. Found only in southern England (SE England, seemingly both species being infrequent immigrants from mainland Europe). England. Occurring in coastal locations and inland. British species: C. craterella, C. linetella. Adults abroad June.
Larvae. Larvae feeding on monocots; Poaceae.
Subfamily. Crambinae.
General comments. Perhaps overlooked owing to confusion with Thisanotia chrysonuchella.
Illustrations. • Chrysocrambus craterella, with species of Agriphila, Catoptria, Chrysoteuchia, Crambus, Pediasia and Thisanotia: Leech, 1886. PYRALIDAE-CRAMBINAE. 1, Catoptria pinella; 2, Catoptria permutatella. 3, Agriphila latistria. 4, Crambus perlella; 5, Crambus perlella var. warringtonella. 6, Agriphila selasella. 7, Agriphila tristella. 8, Pediasia fascelinella. 9, Agriphila inquinatella. 10, Pediasia contaminella. 11, Agriphila geniculea; 12, Agriphila culmella. 13, Thisanotia chrysonuchella. 14, Chrysocrambus craterella. Leech, 1886. • Chrysocrambus craterella, with Thisanotia: Barrett. PYRALIDAE-CRAMBINAE. 3, Thisanotia chrysonuchella. 4, Chrysocrambus craterella. From Barrett, 1907.
We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, and distributions of character states within any set of taxa. See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2003 onwards. Insects of Britain and Ireland: the genera of grass moths (Pyralidae-Crambinae and Schoenobiinae). Version: 14th April 2022. delta-intkey.com’.
