| | Insects of Britain and Ireland: the genera of Lepidoptera-Noctuidae |
Adults. Head rough. Eyes glabrous; not ciliated. Antennae of males ciliate. Tongue well developed.
Wingspan 30–36 mm. Thorax coloured like the forewings, the abdomen similar or paler, but usually darker than the hindwings. Forewings dingy ochreous-grey or -brownish; neither green nor greenish tinged; neither purplish nor rosy marked or tinged; complexly patterned; the patterning obscure (with usually rather faint lines, rows of dots and bands); reniform defined; orbicular defined; claviform undefined. Hindwings white, or whitish, or whitish-fuscous, or 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. Middle tibiae without spines. Posterior tibiae without spines; rough-scaled. Abdomen not crested.
Living adults found July and August.
Larvae, pupae. Larvae posteriorly rounded; feeding on various, unrelated herbaceous Dicots, but especially Caryophyllaceae; pupating on the surface of the ground, or in the soil (? - in a tight, earthern cocoon).
British representation. 4 species (one adventive); South-east England, Central-southern England, South-west England, English Midlands, Northern England, Southern Scotland, Northern Scotland, Wales, and Ireland; alsines (The Uncertain), ambigua (Vine’s Rustic), blanda (The Rustic), superstes* (Powdered Rustic).
Amphipyrinae.
Illustrations. • H. alsines (The Uncertain) and H. Blanda (The Rustic), with 14 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’.
