Species Spodoptera albula - Gray-streaked Armywom Moth - Hodges#9673

9673

Unbarred Spodoptera

Spodoptera albula (Walker, 1857)

S. sunia Guenée

S. orbicularis (Walker)

S. caudata (Walker)

Phylogenetic sequence # 932224

Lafontaine & Schmidt (2010) listed eleven species of the genus Spodoptera in America north of Mexico. (1)

Wingspan 33-35 mm, based on several Internet photos

Adult: forewing brownish-gray with dark streaks along veins; thin black basal dash a distinctive feature; reniform spot a small dark dot; lacks diffuse patch around reniform spot and lacks dark streak extending to outer margin (both characteristics of the similar S. eridania); hindwing white with pale gray shading and dotted black terminal line

Southern United States to South America.

The adults fly mostly during latter half of year, especially November.

The larvae feed on pigweed (Amaranthus spp.)

Southern Armyworm Moth (Spodoptera eridania) forewing lacks a black basal dash, and has either a diffuse patch around reniform spot or a dark streak extending to outer margin (both features lacking in albula); eridania also frequently has a strip of gray shading along the inner margin, apparently lacking or faint in albula

Moth Photographers Group (2)

Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD) (3)

illustration of distinguishing characteristics between S. albula and S. eridania (Pierre Zagatti, Lepidoptera of the French Antilles)

pinned adult images plus flight season, larval foodplant, and other info (Pierre Zagatti, Lepidoptera of the French Antilles)

pinned adult image plus distribution and other info (Matthew Barnes, Moths of Jamaica)

larval foodplant plus synonyms and references (Markku Savela, FUNET)