| | Insects of Britain and Ireland: the genera of Lepidoptera-Noctuidae |
Meliana Curtis; ~ Mythimna
Adults. Head loosely scaled. Eyes hairy; not ciliated. Antennae of males ciliate. Labial palps ascending.
Wingspan 32–40 mm. Forewings buff or buff to fuscous; longitudinally streaked; the patterning well marked (with a dark basal streak, otherwise only relieved by somewhat darker veins and a few black dots beyond the middle); reniform undefined; orbicular defined to undefined; claviform undefined (the stigmata missing or represented by tiny dark dots). Hindwings whitish, or whitish and fuscous, or fuscous and grey; plain; 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 not crested. Posterior tibiae without spines (?). Abdomen not crested.
Living adults found in June.
Larvae, pupae. Larvae feeding on Phragmites leaves, nocturnally; pupating within the stems of the foodplant.
British representation. 1 species; South-east England and English Midlands (Suffolk, Norfolk, Huntingdonshire fens); flammea (Flame Wainscot).
Hadeninae.
Illustrations. • Hadeninae: Mythimna flammea (Curtis, ~Senta): Flame Wainscot: B. Ent. 201. • Mythimna flammea: B. Ent. 201, legend+text. • Mythimna flammea: B. Ent. 201, text cont.. • Senta flammea (Flame Waiscot, ~ Mythimna) and 15 Mythimna species: (Wainscots: Newman). 438, Mythimna conigera (Brown-line Bright-eye); 439, Mythimna vitellina (The Delicate); 438*, Mythimna albipuncta (Rhe White-point); 440, Mythimna turca (The Double Line); 441, Mythimna ferrago (The Clay); 442, Mythimna unipuncta (The White-speck, or American Wainscot); 443, Mythimna obsoleta (Obscure Wainscot); 444, Mythimna loreyi (The Cosmopolitan). 445, Mythimna litoralis (Shore Wainscot); 446, Mythimna pudorina (Striped Wainscot); 447, Mythimna comma (Shoulder-striped Wainscot); 448, Mythimna putrescens (Devonshire Wainscot); 449, Mythimna straminea (Southern Wainscot); 450, Mythimna impura impura (Smoky Wainscot); 451, Mythimna pallens (Common Wainscot); 452(a) and (b), SENTA flammea (Flame Wainscot). 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’.
