32.038 Depressaria badiella (Varied Brown)
ws: 18-22mm; Jul-Sep; cat's-ear (Hypochoeris radicata), perennial sow-thistle (Sonchus arvensis), dandelion (Taraxacum spp); uncommon in sandhills and quarries throughout GB.
Depressaria badiella §1
ID: More or less uniformly fuscous/brown; antenna with two darker fuscous rings on each segment; S3 of labial palp with 4 bands - dark fuscous, pale fuscous or buff, dark fuscous and pale buff from base to apex; (S2 of labial palp is orange in form aurantiella); head scales with pale tips; forewing with 2 dark fuscous spots at base - one on costa (small) and one near the dorsum (larger); more well-marked specimens may show - pale grey shading of proximal half of costa, pale-edged black 'V' at 1/3, dark (2nd) discal stigma, pale grey angulate (80-100˚) fascia at 3/4, fine black lines along veins to termen (which do not form discrete terminal dots as seen in D.radiella). There are 2 other species of Depressaria that can have a plain brownish forewing with concolorous head and thorax:- D.sordidatella has S3 of the labial palps pale creamy buff with a single dark band at 3/5; D.daucella has S3 of labial palp dark with a narrow central pale band and a short pale section at the apex; it usually has numerous short dark longitudinal forewing streaks, those in the the apical third follow the veins but do not usually reach the termen. The antenna of both D.sordidatella and D.daucella has a single dark fuscous ring on each segment.
Dissection
Male genitalia
Female genitalia
§1 North Warren, Suffolk; 16/07/2017 (specimen escaped during photography)
§2 Dungeness, Kent; 25/07/2017; male; fw 10.3mm
§3 Dungeness, Kent; 12/07/2018; female; fw 10.2mm
All images © Chris Lewis
§2 Dungeness, Kent; 25/07/2017; male; fw 10.3mm
§3 Dungeness, Kent; 12/07/2018; female; fw 10.2mm
All images © Chris Lewis
Page published 19/07/2017 (§1) | §2 added 01/10/2017 | §3 added 23/05/2019
