| | Insects of Britain and Ireland: the genera of Lepidoptera-Noctuidae |
Plastenis Boisduval, Zenobia Agassiz, Zenobia Oken
Adults. Head rough. Head without a projecting, horny frontal plate. Eyes glabrous; not ciliated. Antennae of males ciliate. Labial palps medium to long.
Wingspan 26–34 mm. Head, thorax and abdomen coloured like the forewings, or somewhat paler. Forewings olive grey-brown; greenish, or pale fuscous, or fuscous, or olive brown; patterned transversely (lined and barred); the patterning well marked to obscure; patterned lighter, or lighter and darker; reniform defined; orbicular defined (the stigmata pale-outlined); claviform 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. Middle tibiae without spines. Posterior tibiae without spines; rough-scaled. Abdomen not crested.
Living adults found July to September.
Larvae, pupae. Larvae posteriorly rounded; feeding on Salicaceae, drawing together leaves to form a retreat; pupating on the surface of the ground.
British representation. 2 species; South-east England, Central-southern England, South-west England, English Midlands, Northern England, Southern Scotland, Wales, and Ireland; retusa (Double Kidney), subtusa (The Olive).
Amphipyrinae.
Illustrations. • I. retusa (The Small Olive) and I. subtusa (The Olive), with 8 related genera: Newman. 1(a) and (b), Mormo maura (The Old Lady); 2, Amphipyra pyramidea (Copper Underwing); 3, Amphipyra tragopoginis (The Mouse); 4, Dypterygia scabriuscula (The Bird's Wing); 5, Thalpophila matura (Straw Underwing); 6(a) and (b), Rusina ferruginea (Brown Rustic); 7, Trachea aptriplicis (The Orache Moth); 8, Euplexia lucipara (Small Angle-shades); 9, Phlogophora meticulosa (The Angle Shades); 10, IPIMORPHA subtusa (The Olive); 11, IPIMORPHA retusa (The Small Olive). From Newman, 1869. • Amphipyrinae: Kirby 36 (part) and 38 (part). 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 (Bulllrush 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).
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’.
