Species Zanclognatha marcidilinea - Yellowish Zanclognatha - Hodges#8352 (original) (raw)

Classification

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)

Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)

Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)

Class Insecta (Insects)

Order Lepidoptera (Butterflies and Moths)

Superfamily Noctuoidea (Owlet Moths and kin)

Family Erebidae

Subfamily Herminiinae (Litter Moths)

Genus Zanclognatha

Species marcidilinea (Yellowish Zanclognatha - Hodges#8352)

Synonyms and other taxonomic changes

Zanclognatha marcidilinea (Grote, 1872)

Herminia marcidilinea Grote, 1872

Zanclognatha jacchusalis of authors, not (Walker, 1859) (1)

Explanation of Names

"Reidentification of the type specimen of Zanclognatha jacchusalis results in the name Z. marcidilinea being used for the species formerly known Z. jacchusalis. Zanclognatha marcidilinea is the species with a pale gray-brown forewing with the maculation reduced except for a contrasting yellow subterminal line (Lafontaine and Honey 2009)." (1)

"The identity of the only extant type specimen of Zanclognatha jacchusalis, designated as lectotype by Lafontaine and Honey (2009), results in the name Z. ochreipennis being relegated to the synonymy of Z. jacchusalis. Zanclognatha jacchusalis has an orange-brown forewing heavily speckled with black and prominent maculation." (1)

Size

wingspan about 28 mm, based on photos by Jim Vargo at MPG

Identification

Adult: forewing medium yellowish-brown; antemedial (AM) and postmedial (PM) lines wavy, jagged, often faint; subterminal (ST) line pale yellow, straight, thick, contrasting sharply against ground color of wing; hindwing a mix of light brown and whitish shading, with conspicuous pale yellow ST line

Larvae: See "Preliminary key to Zanclognatha larvae" (2)

Range

New Brunswick to Florida(3), west to Texas(4), north to Ontario

also recorded in the west from Oregon to British Columbia but I suspect that these "jacchusalis" records now refer to Z. bryanti (see Remarks section below)

Update 2015 - Z. marcidilinea is an eastern species. Western records appear to pertain to Zanclognatha jacchusalis which now includes Zanclognatha jacchusalis lutalba and Zanclognatha jacchusalis bryanti. I'm not sure if the check lists above take in to account the revisions made to this genus in 2010. (See "Update 2015" in Remarks section below.)

Season

Covell's Field Guide (5) gives a flight season of April to July. This species is listed as Zanclognatha jacchusalis by this source.

Food

Larvae may feed on dead cottonwood leaves (Ohio State U.). This species is listed as Zanclognatha jacchusalis by this source.

See Also

Z. jacchusalis - The forewing am. and pm. lines are less obscure and st. line more prominently bordered proximally by darker shading on both wings. - Adapted from 11/15/2011 email comments made by Donald J. Lafontaine.

Z. cruralis and protumnusalis lack thick yellow ST line, and Z. obscuripennis has a smooth AM line, not wavy or jagged.

Print References

Grote, A.R., 1872. Descriptions of North American Noctuidae, No. 2. Transactions of the American Entomological Society, 4: 97.

Internet References

common name reference plus flight season and larval food. This species is listed as Zanclognatha jacchusalis by this source. (Ohio State U.)