Nysius huttoni

Finding this one around the same time as I was seeing several Nysius senecionis I thought it would be interesting to compare characters with those. The difference in structure is fairly distinctive, as are the longer hairs on the clavus (although the latter are not obvious in photos of the live insect). One of the characters mentioned for separating senecionis from graminicola is the extent of the matt area on the metapleuron so I wondered what this looked like on huttoni. Well, based on this one, it's less extensive than on senecionis (but I haven't seen graminicola or any photos of their metapleuron so I don't know how it compares with that). It's also grey - pale buff on the senecionis I've examined - and the texture is different. On senecionis it's covered in dark punctures, small, round and clearly separated from one another. On huttoni (this one at least) there were fewer less distinct punctures but also wrinkles, some of which were quite dark and joining some of the punctures together in lines.

Nysius huttoni showing clavus hairs and metapleuron, Wendling Beck Environment Project (Norfolk, UK), 17th May 2023

I've encountered this species occasionally before.

2x Nysius huttoni, Wendling Beck Environment Project (Norfolk, UK), 29th October 2022

This one emerged in a pot containing a leaf with Ectoedemia quinquella mines (and compost) which I had overwintered in the hope of rearing the moth. I collected the leaf on 2nd November 2018. I don't know much about the life-cycle of this species but presumably it must have entered the pot with either the leaf or the compost in November.

Nysius huttoni, North Elmham (Norfolk, UK), 24th April 2019

These two came to light alongside two Nysius senecionis. The first, a female, was straightforward to identify from its shape and general hairiness.

female Nysius huttoni, Wendling Beck Environment Project (Norfolk, UK), 6th August 2025

The second was more problematic. The structural differences from other species in the genus are less obvious in males, and it was much less hairy. In particular the hairs on the clavus, normally longer than the width of the clavus in this species, were sparse and very short. It didn't help that I had put it in a pre-used pot and it was smothered in moth scales, but the clavus hairs were undeniably short. I did wonder if it was worn, but attempted to key it as if it were one of the shorter-haired species. I soon hit a dead end and the shape of the aperture in the genital capsule didn't match any of the other species. That was closest to that of Nysius graminicola, a species that I had recently identified from exactly the same spot, but there were lots of other reasons to discount that as the ID. And although it was closest to that in that the top part of the aperture had someting resembling teeth, these were hardly tooth-shaped, being longer and more rounded than the relatively sharp teeth of graminicola.

At this point I started to suspect that it was in fact huttoni despite the very short hairs on the clavus, but I could not - and still cannot - find any references which show the shape of the aperture for huttoni so I could not confirm that this matched. By now I had already discarded the above specimen without sexing it, but keen to compare the genital capsule with a male huttoni I sifted through my discard pot and retrieved it, only to find that it was a female. However, in other respects, such as the form of the bucculae, metapleura and antennae, it was basically identical. Moreover, although the majority of the hairs on the clavus were very short, there were some long ones around the edge and elsewhere (especially on the pronotum). So in the end I'm happy it was huttoni, though I shall try to remember to find out what the genital capsule is like next time I find a normal male.

male Nysius huttoni showing clavus, hind tarsus, buccula, metapleuron and genital capsule (2 views), Wendling Beck Environment Project (Norfolk, UK), 6th August 2025