...and a superb photo of a superb specimen. If you look at Jim Vargo's spread specimens at MPG I think you will agree that D. manto drops from consideration, and that a choice must be made between D. basiflava (northern) and D. meridionalis (southern) species whose ranges probably abut somewhere in North Carolina. The photos in Ferguson's (1978) MONA Fascicle 22.2 do not help as much, in my opinion, as do Vargo's in making this choice. Your specimen seems to me to combine nicely elements of the male and female photos of Vargo's D. basiflava.

Your date is about a week earlier than Ferguson's early date for southern specimens. I'm guessing that he had few specimens to look at from NC. I frequently encounter moths at dates a week or two earlier than the earliest dates compiled by Glaser and Ferguson over a 15 year period for Maryland moths.