''Mythimna favicolor'', or Mathew's wainscot, is a

moth Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of w ...

of the family

Noctuidae The Noctuidae, commonly known as owlet moths, cutworms or armyworms, are a family of moths. They are considered the most controversial family in the superfamily Noctuoidea because many of the clades are constantly changing, along with the other f ...

. The species was first described by

Charles Golding Barrett Charles Golding Barrett (5 May 1836, Colyton, Devon – 11 December 1904, London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. ...

in 1896. It is found in Europe (Britain, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands). The species is sometimes treated as a subspecies of ''Mythimna pallens'', the

common wainscot ''Mythimna pallens'', the common wainscot, is a moth of the family Noctuidae distributed throughout the Palearctic realm from Ireland in the west, through Europe (all of Russia) to Central Asia and Amur river, Amur to the Kuriles in the east. The ...

Technical description and variation

''S. favicolor'' Bart. Forewing pale olive brown ; veins concolorous, slightly defined by brown ; the intervals at termen with brown streaks; a small black dot at lower end of cell; an outer row of black dots on veins, sometimes reduced to two only, on veins 2 and 5 ; hindwing fuscous whitish ; - ab. ''lutea'' Tutt is paler and yellowish; — in ab. ''rufa'' Tutt the head, thorax, and forewings are bright rufous; abdomen and hindwing tinged with rufous; — ''argillacea'' Tutt has the forewing greyish luteous, the fringe pink; hindwing senea. smoky; — ab. ''cenea'' Mathew is deep orange, the hindwing smoky; the veins darker and the fringe pale; — ''obscura'' Mathew is cinnamon-brown with smoky clouding between the veins in places ; hindwing smoky; fringe pale;- ''pallida'' Mathew has the forewing very silky, pale creamy buff, the termen flushed with rosy; hind wing whitish grey; — lastly, ''fusco-rosea'' Mathew is rosy buff: the hindwing pale rosy: the veins conspicuously dark brown ; close to the ab. ''rufa'' Tutt.The

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan of ...

is . Larva pinkish ochreous reticulated with darker; dorsal line pale, narrow, with darker edges: subdorsal greyish white; a broader grey stripe above the spiracles and a pinkish ochreous one below.

Similar species

''Mythimna favicolor'' is difficult to certainly distinguish from its congeners. See Townsend et al.Martin C. Townsend, Jon Clifton and Brian Goodey (2010)
''British and Irish Moths: An Illustrated Guide to Selected Difficult Species''
(covering the use of genitalia characters and other features) Butterfly Conservation. for genitalia images and an identification key. *''

Mythimna straminea ''Mythimna straminea'', the southern wainscot, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Georg Friedrich Treitschke in 1825. It is found in the western parts of the Palearctic realm, including Morocco, Europe, Turkey, ...

'' (Treitschke, 1825) *''

Mythimna impura ''Mythimna impura'', the smoky wainscot, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was Species description, first described by Jacob Hübner in 1808. It is distributed throughout most of the Palearctic realm from Ireland in the west of Europ ...

'' (Hübner, 1808) *''

Mythimna pallens ''Mythimna pallens'', the common wainscot, is a moth of the family Noctuidae distributed throughout the Palearctic realm from Ireland in the west, through Europe (all of Russia) to Central Asia and Amur to the Kuriles in the east. The species was ...

'' (Linnaeus, 1758)

Biology

The moth flies from June to July depending on the location. The larvae feed on ''

Puccinellia maritima ''Puccinellia maritima'' is a species of grass Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of na ...

''.

References

Mythimna (moth) Moths described in 1896 Moths of Europe {{Mythimnini-stub