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For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada

Species Elaphria alapallida - Pale-winged Midget - Hodges#9681.1

Festive Midget - Elaphria alapallida Pale-winged Midget - Elaphria alapallida Tortricidae ? - Elaphria alapallida Pennsylvania Moth - Elaphria alapallida Elaphria alapallida Pennsylvania Moth - Elaphria alapallida 9081722 moth - Elaphria alapallida Lépidoptère - Elaphria alapallida
Show images of: caterpillars · adults · both
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 Noctuidae (Owlet Moths)
Subfamily Noctuinae (Cutworm or Dart Moths)
Tribe Elaphriini
Genus Elaphria (Midgets)
Species alapallida (Pale-winged Midget - Hodges#9681.1)
Hodges Number
9681.1
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
split from E. festivoides in 2003 by Pogue and Sullivan(1)
Explanation of Names
ALAPALLIDA: from the Latin "ala" (wing) + "pallidus" (pale, wan, faint); a reference to the relative paleness of the hindwing of this species in comparison with E. festivoides, from which it was split
Size
wingspan 24-28 mm
Identification
Adult: very similar to the Festive Midget (E. festivoides), and not recognized as a distinct species until 2003; best distinguished by genitalic differences and geographic range, but see See Also section below.
Forewing warm brown with some gray mottling, paler in costal third of wing; basal area light grayish-brown, with distinct antemedial (AM) line; lower two-thirds of medial area darker brown, with even darker medial line sometimes visible; blackish shading between orbicular and reniform spots, which are whitish or pale brown; reniform spot sharply curved, sometimes resembling a round eye; subterminal area marked with grayish-white patches at costa and inner margin just outside PM line; pale brown patch at apex. [adapted from description by Lynn Scott]
Range
Most common in the Northeast. Coast to coast in southern Canada and northern United States, south to the mountains of North Carolina and occasional as far south and west as the Gulf states and New Mexico. (More northerly distribution than E. festivoides, which is restricted to the southern and central states.)
Season
adults fly from late April to mid-August (May to July in most of range)
Food
larvae of the closely related Festive Midget have been reared on Acer negundo (Box-elder or Manitoba Maple); hostplant preferences of E. alapallida may be similar
Life Cycle
one generation per year (whereas E. festivoides has at least two generations per year)
Remarks
All "Festive Midgets" previously collected in Canada have turned out to be misidentified Pale-winged Midgets; the Festive Midget apparently does not occur in Canada.
See Also
Festive Midget (E. festivoides) in the Southeast. Festive slightly larger on average & generally drabber, lacking the bright rufous and white scales usually present in Pale-winged. Forewing markings generally less defined in Festive than Pale-winged; for example, claviform spot indistinct to absent in Festive, well developed in Pale-winged. Hindwing gray in Festive, whitish in Pale-winged. [adapted from Pogue & Sullivan 2003(1)]
Internet References
New species description by Pogue and Sullivan 2003.
pinned adult image by John Glaser (Larry Line, Maryland)
distribution in Canada list of provinces (U. of Alberta, using CBIF data)
Works Cited
1.Re-evaluation of the Elaphria festivoides (Guenée) species complex (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)
Pogue, Michael G. & Sullivan, J. Bolling. 2003. Proc. Entomol. Soc. Wash. 105(2), 331–347.