| | Insects of Britain and Ireland: the genera of Lepidoptera-Noctuidae |
Adults. Head rough. Eyes glabrous; ciliated. Antennae of males bipectinate (to the apex). Labial palps short.
Wingspan 28–36 mm. Thorax coloured like the forewings, darkened at the front and sides, the abdomen lighter like the hindwings. Forewings slightly rosy ochreous and fuscous or umber brown; complexly patterned; the patterning well marked; reniform defined; orbicular defined; claviform defined. Hindwings pale grey, or whitish to whitish-fuscous, or fuscous; plain, or terminally darkened; without a clear discal mark; transversely lined, 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 (at the back). Posterior tibiae without spines. Abdomen not crested.
Living adults found in September.
Larvae, pupae. Larvae feeding on grasses; pupating on the surface of the ground, or in the soil (?).
British representation. 1 species; Central-southern England, South-west England, and English Midlands; oditis (Beautiful Gothic).
Cuculliinae.
Illustrations. • L. oditis (Beautiful Gothic), and 9 related genera. 1(a) and (b), Cleoceris viminalis (Minor Shoulder-knot); 2, Leucochlaena oditis (Beautiful Gothic); 3(a)-(c), Dryobotodes eremita (Brindled Green); 4(a)-(c), Dasypolia templi (Brindled Ochre); 5, Lithomoia solidaginis (Golden-rod Brindle); 6, Valeria oleagina (Green-brindled Dot); 7(a) and (b), Aporophyla australis pascuea (Feathered Brindle); 8(a) and (b), Aporophyla lutulenta lutulenta (Deep-brown Dart); 9(a) and (b), Aporophyla nigra (Black Rustic); 10(a) and (b), Allophyes oxyacanthae (Green-brindled Crescent); 11, Trigonophora flammea (Flame Brocade); 12(a) and (b), Dichonia aprilina (Merveille-du-jour). 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’.
