73.194 Conistra (Conistra) vaccinii (Chestnut)
fw: 14-15mm (Waring & Townsend), ws: 33-36mm (MBGBI10); Sep-May; various broadleaved trees, blackthorn (Prunus spinosa), docks (Rumex spp); common throughout mainland GB.
ID: Forewing ground colour light orange-brown to deep chestnut-brown, with a variable amount of marbling; apex and termen rounded.
C.ligula (Dark Chestnut) has a pointed apex and the apical half of the termen is slightly concave or straight. C.erythrocephala (Red-headed Chestnut) is larger (fw: 16mm), its head is lighter than the thorax (concolorous in C.vaccinii) and it has 2 or 3 small black dots in the kidney mark.
C.ligula (Dark Chestnut) has a pointed apex and the apical half of the termen is slightly concave or straight. C.erythrocephala (Red-headed Chestnut) is larger (fw: 16mm), its head is lighter than the thorax (concolorous in C.vaccinii) and it has 2 or 3 small black dots in the kidney mark.
Male genitalia. There do not appear to be any significant differences in the armature between this species and C.ligula. In the aedeagus both species show single stout basal and apical cornuti and a central group of fine cornuti. In C.vaccinii the apical conutus has a broad base (somewhat resembling a plunger), the basal cornutus is angled at around the junction of its basal 1/3 with apical 2/3 and the central group has fewer and stouter cornuti than in C.ligula. In C.ligula the apical cornutus is not expanded at the base and the basal cornutus is fairly straight.
Female genitalia. An image comparing this species and C.ligula is shown at Moth Dissection, but the relevant differences between the species are not indicated or described. The images appear to show that the introitus vaginae is significantly more elongate in C.ligula and that the bursa copulatrix contains a single small linear signum in C.vaccinii and none in C.ligula. However, Pierce does not illustrate any difference in the introitus vaginae and describes two scobinate band-like signa in C.vaccinii and "signa narrow and inconspicuous" in C.ligula.
§1 Strumpshaw Fen, Norfolk; 17/10/2011; male; fw 14.5mm
§2 Strumpshaw Fen, Norfolk; 17/10/2011; female; fw 15.3mm §3 Strumpshaw Fen, Norfolk; 18/10/2011; female; fw 14.8mm §4 Hockley Woods, Essex; 30/03/2014; male; fw 12.9mm §5 Dodd Wood, Cumbria; 12/11/2014; male; fw 14.1mm §6 Foulness, Essex; 03/10/2015; male; fw 13.4mm §7 Foulden Common, Norfolk; 11/04/2016; female; fw 14.3mm §8 Bampton Grange, Cumbria; 13/10/2017 §9 Bampton Grange, Cumbria; 13/10/2017 §10 Bampton Grange, Cumbria; 14/10/2017 All images © Chris Lewis |
L1 Foulness, Essex; 30/05/2021
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Page published 03/06/2016 (§1-6) | §7 added 12/04/2017 | §8-10 added 31/12/2017 | L1 added 03/12/2021