147 Photedes minima (Small Dotted Buff)

73.147 Photedes minima (Small Dotted Buff)

fw: 11-14mm (Waring & Townsend), ws: m25-30mm, f20-24mm (MBGBI10); Jun-Aug; tufted hair-grass (Deschampsia cespitosa); common in poorly-drained grassland throughout GB

Photedes minima (Small Dotted Buff) §3 male

ID: Forewing usually whitish-straw; straight antemedian line of blackish neural dots; curved postmedian line of blackish neural dots; kidney mark usually represent by one or two brown dots; diffuse brown triangular costal blotch immediately distal to postmedian line. Hindwing darker than forewing on the upperside, paler than forewing on the underside. Female smaller and more slender than male, may be similarly marked to male but can show a suggestion of a brown median fascia and a white subterminal line and the cross-lines may be more dentate though still with neural dots. Antenna: male - bluntly serrate, female - simple.

Variation
Dissection
Male genitalia
Female genitalia

§1 Ardnamurchan; 10/07/2012; male
§2 Glen Urquart; Inverness-shire; 17/07/2012; male; fw 14.9mm
§3 Buttermere, Cumbria; 21/06/2014; male; fw 13.6mm
§4 Buttermere, Cumbria; 24/06/2014; male; fw 12.4mm
§5 Romansleigh, Devon; 29/06/2016; male; fw 13.2mm
§6 Foulden Common, Norfolk; 29/06/2017
§7 Bampton Grange, Cumbria; 30/07/2020; female; fw 10.0mm
§8 Bampton Grange, Cumbria; 24/06/2023
All images © Chris Lewis

Page published 11/03/2016 (§1-4) | §5 added 08/04/2017 | §6 added 10/04/2018 | §7 added 02/02/2021 | §8 added 29/09/2023