| | Insects of Britain and Ireland: the genera of Lepidoptera-Noctuidae |
Adults. Head rough. Eyes hairy; not ciliated. Antennae of males bipectinate.
Wingspan 40–50 mm. Thorax coloured like the dark component of the forewings, the abdomen paler and like the hindwings. Forewings lightish greyish; pale fuscous, or pale grey; complexly patterned; the patterning well marked (with sharply defined dark markings); reniform defined; orbicular defined; claviform defined. Hindwings light fuscous, or whitish-fuscous; plain; with 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 back). Posterior tibiae without spines (?). Abdomen more or less crested.
Living adults found May to July.
Larvae, pupae. Larvae feeding on grasses, nocturnally; pupating on the surface of the ground.
British representation. 1 species; South-east England (rare and local); sagittigera (The Feathered Ear).
Hadeninae.
Illustrations. • P. sagittigera britannica (Feathered Ear), with other Hadeninae: Newman. 1(a) and (b), Anarta myrtillae (Beautiful Yellow Underwing); 2, Anarta melanopa (Broad-bordered White Underwing); 3, Anarta cordigera (Small Dark Yellow Underwing); 4, Discestra trifolii (The Nutmeg); 5(a) and (b), Polia nebulosa (Grey Arches, normal forms); 5(c) and (d), Polia nebulosa (Grey Arches, varieties); 6, Polia trimaculosa (Silvery Arches); 7, Polia bombycina (Pale-shining Brown); 8, PACHETRA sagittigera britannica (Feathered Ear); 9, Sideridis albicolon (White Colon); 10, Melanchra persicariae (The Dot); 11, Hada plebeja (The Shears); 12, Heliophobus reticulata (Bordered Gothic); 13, Mamestra brassicae (Cabbage Moth). From Newman, 1869. • Pachetra sagittigera (Feathered Ear): Stephens II, 1830.
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’.
