| | Insects of Britain and Ireland: the genera of Lepidoptera-Noctuidae |
Adults. Head with a projecting, triangular horny frontal plate (concealed in dense scales). Eyes glabrous; not ciliated. Antennae of males ciliate.
Wingspan 22–25 mm. Head and thorax coloured like the forewings, abdomen similar or lighter like the hindwings. Forewings light or dark reddish brown; plain, or patterned transversely, or longitudinally streaked; the patterning obscure (plain, save for an indistinct darker basal streak and sometimes an indistinct outer line of dots); reniform undefined; orbicular undefined; claviform undefined. Hindwings white, or whitish, or whitish-fuscous, or fuscous, or grey; plain; without a clear discal mark; transversely lined (faint), or without transverse lines; exhibiting vein 5. Vein 5 of the hindwings weak; arising nearer to vein 6 than to vein 4. Thorax slightly crested (anteriorly). Middle tibiae without spines. Posterior tibiae without spines; with appressed scales. Abdomen not crested.
Living adults found in July.
Larvae, pupae. Larvae feeding on Juncus, in the stems.
British representation. 1 species; South-east England, Central-southern England, South-west England, English Midlands, Wales, and Ireland (local, in damp places); rufa (Small Rufous).
Amphipyrinae.
Illustrations. • C. ruga (Small rufous), and related genera: Newman. 1, Panemeria tenebrata (Small Yellow Underwing); 2, Elaphria venustula (The Rosy Marbled); 3, Archanara geminipuncta (Twin-spotted Wainscot); 4(a) and (b), Archanara dissoluta (Brown-veined Wainscot); 5, Archanara algae ( Reed Wainscot); 6, Oria musculosa (Brighton Wainscot); 7, Rhizedra lutosa (Large Wainscot); 8(a)-(d), Charanyca trigrammica (Treble Lines); 9, Arenostola phragmitidis (Fen Wainscot); 10, Hoplodrina alsines (The Uncertain); 11, Hoplodrina blanda (The Rustic); 12, Caradrina morpheus (Mottled Rustic); 13, Caradrina clavipalpis (Pale Mottled Willow); 14(a)-(d), Chilodes peltigera (Silky Wainscot); 15, Stilbia anomala (The Anomalous); 16, Spodoptera exigua (Small Mottled Willow); 17, Acosmetia caliginosa (The Reddish Buff); 18, COENOBIA rufa (Small Rufous); 19, Athetis pallustris (Marsh Moth). From Newman, 1869.
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’.
