Thanks for the info. Yes, it does look more like your Cabbage Budworm Moth than anything else I've seen thus far. Maybe it hitchhiked here.

this isn't a Cabbage Budworm; I only mentioned H. phidilealis because it's in the same genus as rogatalis and is superficially similar.
Your photo, like H. rogatalis, shows a smoothly-rounded oval or kidney-shaped reniform spot, and a subterminal line composed of several equally-spaced black dots that are some distance from the outer margin.
By contrast, H. phidilealis has an irregular-shaped blotch as its reniform spot, and has no subterminal line (instead, it has a terminal line along the outer margin, composed of only 3 main dots, unequally-spaced).
I only hesitate calling your photo H. rogatalis because there's several adjacent Hodges numbers missing from this page at MPG, and I don't know what those missing species look like.

.... I tried searching for information on both species in part to determine it H. phidilealis occurs generally in southern California. So far I can't find definite evidence that it does. My guess is that it probably does (it is known from Florida to at least Arizona, across the width of tropical South America, and throughout much of the tropical/subtropical world). But I'd still call this photo (tentatively) Hellula rogatalis for the solid reasoning Robin has given. It might be a long time until we discover what the three other N.A. members of this species look like.

and realized mine was not an Eastern species. Thanks, both Robin and Bob, for your detailed information. Boy, moths are a lot tougher than butterflies!