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| Insects of Britain and Ireland: the genera of grass moths (Pyralidae-Crambinae and Schoenobiinae) |
Acigona (Hübner)
Adults. Face with a conical hairy prominence. Proboscis functional. Labial palps short.
Wingspan 21–24 mm (male), or 34–39 mm (female, with extreme sexual dimorphism). The adults conspicuously sexually dimorphic. Forewings in the male, broad with the slightly convex termen not oblique, the apex squared; creamish-ochreous but irrorated light to dark brown, with a rounded dark discal spot usually associated with a creamy mark on each side, a fuscous basal streak dorsal to the cell broken by creamy marks, a curved subterminal line comprising pale interneural dots each with a dark basal smudge, and a terminal series of blackish interneural dots, the cilia faintly barred. In the female relatively long an narrow, the slightly sinuate termen slightly more oblique; usually rich mahogany brown, with a broad, strongly contrasting, pale costal streak. The fringe not glistening-metallic. The fringe somewhat chequered to not chequered. Forewing apices rounded to pointed; termen non-sinuate (slightly convex). Ground colour of the forewings pale ochreous to brown (sprinkled darker). Forewings conspicuously patterned with contrasting colours. The patterning complex, or simple; restricted to transverse markings, or comprising both longitudinal streaking and transverse markings. Forewings without 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. Forewing vein 7 free. Hindwings whitish, or whitish; plain, or suffused grey; in the male whitish, palely suffused brownish especially towards apex and termen. In the female white, and unpatterned except for a very fine dark terminal line, with white cilia.
Distribution and habitats. Found only in southern England (mainland-European, a rare immigrant in the SE). England. British species: H. cicatricella. Adults abroad July.
Larvae. Larvae feeding on monocots; Cyperaceae (Scirpus, in the stems, where they remain to pupate).
Subfamily. Crambinae.
Illustrations. • Haimbachia cicatricella, with Chilo, Calamotropha, Pyralidae-Pyraustinae and Schoenobiinae: Leech, 1896. PYRALIDAE-PYRAUSTINAE. 1, Pyralis lienigialis. 2, Nomophila noctuella. PYRALIDAE-CRAMBINAE. 3, Haimbachia cicatricella. 4, Calamotropha paludella. 5, Chilo phragmitella. PYRALIDAE-SCHOENOBIINAE. 6, Donacaula forficella; 7, Donacaula mucronellus. 8, Schoenobius gigantella. Leech, 1886. • H. cicatricella, with Calamotropha, Chilo, Platytes and Talis: Hübner (1797–1824). Hübner's illustrations (1796–1813) of assorted Crambidae. Current binomials: 33 and 451, Talis quercella (mainland-European); 297 and 298, Chilo phragmitella; 338, Platytes alpinella; 452 and 453, Calamotropha paludella; 455, Haimbachia cicatricella. See accompanying document for nomenclatural details.
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’.
