| | Insects of Britain and Ireland: the genera of Lepidoptera-Noctuidae |
Aethia; formerly Polypogon
Adults. Head loosely scaled. Head with a frontal tuft. Eyes glabrous; not ciliated. Antennae of males ciliate. Labial palps long; ascending.
Wingspan 23–28 mm. Thorax and abdomen concolorous with the forewings, or the abdomen more like the hindwings. Forewings ochreous, irrorated brown; patterned transversely; the patterning well marked (with three narrow, darker transverse lines: the first and second dark fuscous, the first straight and the second strongly curved on the upper half, and the subterminal one somewhat curved inwards and running to the apex); orbicular undefined; claviform undefined. Hindwings pale fuscous, or whitish; conspicuously patterned; without a clear discal mark; twice transversely lined (with a clear, bent, darker subterminal line and a fainter median one); exhibiting vein 5. Vein 5 of the hindwings strong; arising nearer to vein 4 than to vein 6; parallel with vein 4. Thorax not crested. The males lacking anterior tarsi. Posterior tibiae with spines; with appressed scales. Abdomen not crested.
Living adults found June to July.
Larvae, pupae. Larvae posteriorly rounded; feeding on foliage of Rubus and Quercus, including dead leaves.
British representation. 2 species; South-east England, Central-southern England, South-west England, English Midlands, Northern England, Wales, and Ireland; H. grisealis (Small Fan-foot), H. tarsicrinalis (Shaded Fan-foot).
Herminiinae.
Comments. This description currently applies in detail only to H. grisealis.
Illustrations. • H. grisealis, with Macrochilo cribrumalis and Laspeyria flexula: Leech, 1886. NOCTUIDAE-HERMINIINAE. 1, Herminia grisealis Small Fan-foot). 2, Macrochilo cribrumalis (Dotted Fan-foot). NOCTUIDAE-RIVULINAE. 3, Laspeyria flexula (Beautiful Hook-tip). From Leech, 1886. • British Hypeninae (1: Fan-foot Moths). 1(a) and (b), Zanclognatha tarsipennalis (The Fan-foot); 2(a) and (b), Herminia grisealis (Small Fan-foot); 3(a) and (b), Macrochilo cribrumalis (Dotted Fan-foot); 4, Paracolax tristalis (Clay Fan-foot); 5, Trisateles emortualis (Olive Crescent); 6(a) and (b), Pechipogo strigilata (Common Fan-foot). Swain, 1961. • Ophiderinae and Hypeninae: Kirby 44. OPHIDERINAE. 1, Laspeyria flexula (Beautiful Hook-tip); 2, Parascotia fuliginaria (Waved Black); 5, Colobochyla salicalis (Lesser Belle). HYPENINAE. 3, Herminia grisealis (Small Fan-foot); 4, Herminia tarsicrinalis (Fan-foot); 6, Polypogon tentacularia; 7, Pechipogo strigilata (Common Fan-foot); 8, Hypena crassalis (Beautiful Snout); 9, Hypena proboscidalis (Snout); 10, Hypena obesalis (Paignton Snout). From Kirby.
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’.
