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

moth Moths are a group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not Butterfly, butterflies. They were previously classified as suborder Heterocera, but the group is Paraphyly, paraphyletic with respect to butterflies (s ...

of the family

Noctuidae The Noctuidae, commonly known as owlet moths, cutworms or armyworms, are a family (biology), family of moths. Taxonomically, they are considered the most controversial family in the superfamily Noctuoidea because many of the clades are constantly ...

. The species was first described by Charles Golding Barrett 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.

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 opposite wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingsp ...

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'' (Treitschke, 1825) *'' Mythimna impura'' (Hübner, 1808) *'' Mythimna pallens'' (Linnaeus, 1758)

Biology

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

References

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