| | Insects of Britain and Ireland: the genera of Lepidoptera-Noctuidae |
Adults. Head rough. Eyes glabrous; not ciliated. Antennae of males bipectinate (to the apex). Labial palps ascending.
Wingspan 32–40 mm. Thorax coloured umber brown, the abdomen like the hindwings. Forewings rich brown or grey-brown; neither purplish nor rosy marked or tinged; patterned transversely; the patterning well marked to obscure (with clear to indistinct, dark first and second lines, and fairly indistinct median and subterminal darker bands); reniform defined; orbicular defined; claviform undefined. Hindwings quite dark fuscous; plain; with a clear discal mark to 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. Thorax crested (anteriorly and posteriorly). The males not fan-footed. Middle tibiae without spines. Posterior tibiae without spines. Abdomen not crested.
Living adults found June and July.
Larvae, pupae. Larvae feeding on grasses and herbaceous Dicots, especially Viola; pupating on the surface of the ground, or 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; ferruginea (Brown Rustic).
Amphipyrinae.
Illustrations. • R. ferruginea (Brown Rustic), and 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); 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.
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’.
