NOCTUIDAE | Xyleninae | Apameini

73.145 Photodes fluxa (Mere Wainscot)

ws: 26-30mm (MBGBI 10), ​fw: 12-15mm (Waring & Townsend); Jul-Aug; wood small-reed (Calamagrostis epigejos); NS-B mainly in woodland rides and clearings in England mainly in the belt encompassing Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, East Midlands and East Anglia.
Picture
Photodes fluxa (Mere Wainscot) §1 female
ID: General colour ranges from creamy-white to reddish-ferruginous. Veins lined black especially in ditsal half of forewing; oval mark obolete, kidney mark indistinct but usually with a dark blotch in its dorsal half; a postemedian line of neural dots. Hindwing paler than forewing. Similar to Photodes extrema (Concolorous) and Denticucullus pygmina (Small Wainscot). P.extrema has a whiter forewing and the hindwing is darker than the forewing. D.pygmina flies August-Sept, has a broader thorax, usually has a dominant median streak extending from the forewing base, and lacks stigmata.
Male genitalia:  
Female genitalia:  
  • Variation
  • Dissection
  • Male genitalia
  • Female genitalia
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§1 Heydon, Cambridgeshire; 29/06/2025; female; fw 11.6mm
§2 Heydon, Cambridgeshire; 29/06/2025; male; fw 12.4mm
All images © Chris Lewis
Page published 4/07/2025 (§1&2) | dissection images of §1&2 added 09/11/2025