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Curved cross-line of black dots is similar to that in Southern and Large Wainscot.

Two longitudinal streaks of black dots - one down the middle of the forewing and one near the trailing edge.

Flight period July-October
Wing length about 12mm

Flight period of Small Wainscot overlaps with other similar wainscots but it is smaller than them.

Also it usually has a much more brown colour than other species.

Small Wainscot

Large Wainscot looks similar to the Wainscots in family Hadeninae. In particular it has a curved cross-line of black dots and pointed wing-tip similar to those of Southern Wainscot.

However the flight periods of these two species do not overlap.

Flight Period September,October
Wing length 20 to 27mm - varies greatly in size

Large Wainscot

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 Wainscots - Hadeninae & Xyleninae

Quite a number of Noctuid moths are called ‘Wainscots’. They are generally off-white with veins giving the appearance of longitudinal whitish stripes all the way down the forewing. Illustrated here are 5 of the commonest species. They belong to 2 different sub-families of the Noctuidae :
1. Hadeninae - Common Wainscot, Shoulder-striped Wainscot, Smoky Wainscot, Southern Wainscot
 2. Xyleninae - Small Wainscot, Large Wainscot

Southern Wainscot Flight period July, August
Wing length about 16mm

Southern Wainscot is the least common of the Wainscots shown, particularly North of the Midlands.

Common Wainscot

Shoulder-striped Wainscot

Curved cross-line of black dots towards the outer edge of the forewing.

Usually Common Wainscot has one or more black dots but very few other markings.
However some specimens have enough speckling to be mistaken for Smoky Wainscot. In these cases it helps if you can see the hind-wing, which is usually nearly white.

A solid black stripe from the base to the middle of the forewing alongside the central vein.

Smoky Wainscot  has a stripe in a similar position but made up of speckles rather than a solid stripe.

     The apex of the forewing is pointed

The outer edge of the forewing is straight

Smoky Wainscot

Smoky Wainscot is similar to Common Wainscot but has generally more speckled markings - particularly a stripe along the central vein of the forewing.

The hindwing is ‘smoky’ - and is often quite black

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