| | Insects of Britain and Ireland: the genera of Lepidoptera-Noctuidae |
Acantholeucania Rungs, Aletia Hübner, Leucania Ochsenheimer, Pseudaletia Franclemont
Adults. Head rough. Eyes hairy; not ciliated. Antennae of males ciliate.
Wingspan 31–52 mm. The thorax usually coloured like the forewings, the abdomen similar or paler, sometimes coloured similarly to the hindwings but usually darker or paler than them. Forewings very pale to darkish ochreous, sometimes orangish-ochreous to almost brick-red; plain, or patterned transversely (with dark or light lines or lines of dots), or longitudinally streaked (with dark or whitish median and sometimes other streaks); the patterning well marked to obscure (sometimes reduced to one or two stigmatal dark dots, or a complete or incomplete transverse outer line of dots, occasionally even the stigmata not indicated); reniform defined to undefined; orbicular defined to undefined (the stigmata variously expressed, as dark dots, or orange, or white); claviform undefined. Hindwings white, or whitish, or whitish-fuscous, or fuscous, or yellowish (or brassy-whitish), or 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 crested (front and back), or not crested. Posterior tibiae without spines (?); rough-scaled (in at least some species). Abdomen crested, or not crested.
Living adults found June to September.
Larvae, pupae. Larvae posteriorly rounded, or posteriorly tapered; feeding on grasses (mainly) and sedges, rarely Rumex, Stellaria; pupating on vegetative parts of the foodplant, or on the surface of the ground, or in the soil.
British representation. 19 species. Status in Britain indigenous. South-east England, Central-southern England, South-west England, English Midlands, Northern England, Southern Scotland, Northern Scotland, Wales, and Ireland; albipuncta (The White-point), comma (Shoulder-striped Wainscot), commoides (adventive), conigera (Brown-line Bright-eye), favicolor (Mathew’s Wainscot), ferrago (The Clay), impura (Smoky Wainscot), l-album (L-album Wainscot), litoralis (Shore Wainscot), loreyi (The Cosmopolitan), obsoleta (Obscure Wainscot), pallens (Common Wainscot), pudorina (Striped Wainscot), putrescens (Devonshire Wainscot), straminea (Southern Wainscot), turca (The Double Line), unipuncta (White-speck, or American Wainscot), vitellina (The Delicate).
Hadeninae.
Illustrations. • The British species of Mythimna and Senta (Wainscots): Newman). 438, Mythimna conigera (Brown-line Bright-eye); 439, Mythimna vitellina (The Delicate); 438*, Mythimna albipuncta (The 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. • Hadeninae: Mythimna litoralis (Curtis): Shore Wainscot: B. Ent. 157. • Mythimna litoralis (B. Ent. 157, legend+text). • Mythimna litoralis (B. Ent. 157, text cont.). • 4 Mythimna species with other Hadeninae: Kirby. HADENINAE. 1, Orthosia gothica (Hebrew Character); 2, Orthosia miniosa Blossom Underwing); 3, Orthosia cruda (Small Quaker); 4, Orthosia cerasi (Common Quaker); 5, Orthosia gracilis (Powdered Quaker); 6, Orthosia incerta (Clouded Drab); 7, Orthosia munda (Twin-spot Quaker); 8, Panolis flammea (Pine Beauty); 12, Mythimna pallens (Common Wainscot); 13, Mythimna comma (Shoulder-striped Wainscot); 14, Mythimna conigera (Brown-line Bright Eye); 15, Mythimna L-album; 16, Egira spicillaris (Silver Cloud).
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’.
