| | Insects of Britain and Ireland: the genera of Lepidoptera-Noctuidae |
Adults. Face with a rounded prominence. Eyes glabrous; ciliated. Antennae of males simple, or dentate.
Thorax coloured like the forewings, the abdomen more like the hindwings. Forewings ochreous, light brown with rosy tinge, greyish, or dark grey- or olive-brown; patterned transversely, or complexly patterned; the patterning well marked, or obscure; reniform defined (at least partly dark); orbicular defined; claviform undefined. Hindwings whitish, or whitish-fuscous to fuscous; more or less conspicuously patterned (with a row of dark, sub-marginal, more or less coalescing blotches, or only two or three of them expressed); with a clear discal mark; transversely lined (if the sub-marginal band is so interpreted), 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 (front and rear). Posterior tibiae without spines. Abdomen not crested.
Living adults found in September.
Larvae, pupae. Larvae posteriorly rounded; feeding on various grasses, nocturnally, hiding under stones during the day; pupating in the soil.
British representation. 1 species; South-east England, Central-southern England, South-west England, English Midlands, Northern England, Southern Scotland, Northern Scotland, Wales, and Ireland (common); lunosa (Lunar Underwing).
Acronictinae.
Illustrations. • Cuculliinae: Omphaloscelis lunosa (Lunar Underwing: B. Ent. 237). • Omphaloscelis lunosa: B. Ent. 237, legend+text. • Omphaloscelis lunosa: B. Ent. 237, text cont.. • O. lunosa and 8 related genera: Newman. 1(a), Blepharita satura (Beautiful Brocade); 1(b), Blepharita adusta (Dark Brocade); 2, Polymixis flavicincta (Large Ranunculus); 3, Polymixis xanthomista xanthomista (The Black-banded); 4, Parastichtis suspecta (The Suspected); 5(a)-(c), Antitype chi (Grey Chi); 6(a) and (b), Eupsilia transversa (The Satellite); 7(a) and (b), Eumichtis lichenea (Feathered Ranunculus); 8, Jodia croceago (Orange Upper-wing); 9, Conistra vaccinii (The Chestnut); 10, Conistra ligula (Dark Chestnut); 11, Conistra rubiginea (Dotted Chestnut); 12, Conistra erythrocephala (Red-headed Chestnut); 13(a) and (b), OMPHALOSCELIS lunosa (Lunar Underwing). 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’.
