| | Insects of Britain and Ireland: the genera of Lepidoptera-Noctuidae |
Gonoptera Berthold
Adults. Head rough (-haired). Head with a frontal tuft. Eyes glabrous; not ciliated. Antennae of males bipectinate (to the apex). Labial palps medium to long; ascending.
Wingspan 44–48 mm. Head and thorax reddish brown, the abdomen greyish brown. Forewings pinkish-grey-fuscous with orange fasciae; complexly patterned; the patterning well marked (with sharp, pale first, second and subterminal lines, and median and basal orange streaks); reniform defined; orbicular defined to undefined. Hindwings light and dark fuscous, or fuscous and pinkish; conspicuously patterned (the light base separated from the dark outer part by a still darker transverse line); without a clear discal mark; transversely lined; exhibiting vein 5. Vein 5 of the hindwings strong; arising nearer to vein 4 than to vein 6; convergent on vein 4 near their bases. Thorax crested (anteriorly, via the collar). Middle tibiae without spines. Posterior tibiae with spines; rough-scaled. Abdomen crested.
Living adults found August to December, or January to May (hibernating).
Larvae, pupae. Ventral prolegs 8 (but the first pair somewhat reduced). Larvae posteriorly tapered; feeding on Salicaceae; pupating on vegetative parts of the foodplant.
British representation. 1 species; South-east England, Central-southern England, South-west England, English Midlands, Northern England, Southern Scotland, Northern Scotland, Wales, and Ireland; libatrix (The Herald).
Ophiderinae.
Illustrations. • Scoliopteryx libatrix (The Herald), with other Ophiderinae: Newman. 1(a)-(c), Tyta luctuosa (The Four-spotted); 2, Catephia alchymista (The Alchymist); 3, Scoliopteryx libatrix (The Herald); 4, Lygephila pastinum (Blackneck); 5, Lygephila craccae (Scarce Blackneck); 6, Phytometra viridaria (Small Purple-barred); 7, Parascotia fuliginaria (Waved Black). From Newman, 1869. • British Ophiderinae: Swain. 1, Tyta luctuosa (The Four-spotted); 2*, Tathorhynchus exsiccata (Levant Blackneck: Amphipyrinae); 3, Lygephila pastinum (Blackneck); 4, Lygephila cracca (Scarce Blackneck); 5, Colobochyla salicalis (Lesser Belle); 6, Rivula sericealis (Straw Dot); 7, Scoliopteryx libatrix (Herald); 8, Phytometra viridaria (Small Purple-barred); 9, Parascotia fuliginaria (Waved Black); 10, Laspeyria flexula (Beautiful Hook-tip). Swain, 1961. • Ophiderinae: Kirby. OPHIDERINAE. 1, Catephia alchymista (The Alchymist); 2, Aedia funesta; 9, Scoliopteryx libatrix (The Herald); 14, Tyta luctuosa (The Four-spotted). From Kirby 37 and 42.
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’.
