| | Insects of Britain and Ireland: the genera of Lepidoptera-Noctuidae |
Adults. Head rough. Head without a frontal tuft. Eyes glabrous; not ciliated. Antennae of males ciliate. Tongue well developed. Labial palps short to medium; porrect to ascending.
Wingspan 28–40 mm. Head, palps and collar rich red-brown, thorax darker, abdomen grey-brown or reddish towards the tip. Forewings ferrugineous or yellow-brown; ochreous, or orange, or light brown, or brown; neither green nor greenish tinged; neither purplish nor rosy marked or tinged; plain, or patterned transversely, or complexly patterned; the patterning well marked; reniform defined; orbicular defined; claviform defined, or undefined. Hindwings fuscous; plain, or terminally darkened; without a clear discal mark; without transverse lines; exhibiting vein 5. Vein 5 of the hindwings weak; arising nearer to vein 6 than to vein 4. Thorax crested (front and rear). Middle tibiae without spines. Posterior tibiae without spines. Abdomen crested.
Living adults found August and September.
Larvae, pupae. Larvae feeding on the lower stems of grasses; pupating in the soil.
British representation. 4 species; South-east England, Central-southern England, South-west England, English Midlands, Northern England, Southern Scotland, Northern Scotland, Wales, and Ireland; A. crinanensis (Crinan Ear), A. fucosa paludis (Saltern Ear), A. lucens (Large Ear), A. oculea (The Ear).
Amphipyrinae.
Illustrations. • Amphipoea spp. (The Ear), and 6 related genera: Newman. 1(a) and (b), Photedes captiuncula (Least Minor); 2(a)-(c), Photedes pygmina (Small Wainscot); 3(a) and (b), Photedes minima (Small Dotted Buff); 4, Photedes elymi (The Lyme Grass); 5, Photedes morrisii (Bond's Wainscot); 6, Photedes brevilinea (Fenn's Wainscot); 7(a) and (b), Photedes extrema (The Concolorous); 8(a) and (b), Photedes fluxa (Mere Wainscot); 9(a) and (b), AMPHIPOEA spp. (The Ear - requiring examination of genitalia to distinguish the species); 10, Luperina testacea (Flounced Rustic); 11, Luperina dumerilii (Dumeril's Luperina); 12, Hydraecia micacea (Rosy Rustic); 13, Hydraecia petasitis (The Butterbur); 14, Gortyna flavago (Frosted Orange); 15(a) and (b), Celaena leucostigma leucostigma (The Crescent) 16, Celaena haworthii (Haworth's Minor); 17(a) and (b), Nonagria typhae (The Bullrush). From Newman, 1869. • Amphipyrinae: Kirby. AMPHIPYRINAE. 1, Trachea atriplicis (Orache Moth); 2, Euplexia lucipara (Small Angle-shades); 4, Phlogophora meticulosa (Angle-shades); 5, Mormo maura (Old Lady); 8, Amphipoea oculea (Golden Ear); 9, Gortyna flavago (Frosted Orange); 10, Archanara cannae (Reed Wainscot); 11, Nonagria typhae (Bulrush Moth); 12, Diclya 00 (Heart); 13, Cosmia pyralina (Lunar-spotted Pinion); 14, Cosmia diffinis (White-spotted Pinion); 15, Cosmia affinis (Lesser-spotted Pinion); 16, Cosmia trapezina (Dun Bar); 17, Ipimorpha retusa (Double Kidney); 21, Amphipyra tragopogonis (Mouse); 22, Amphipyra pyramidea Copper Underwing). From Kirby 36 and 38.
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 Lepidoptera-Noctuidae. Version: 14th February 2021. delta-intkey.com’.
