Identification
Wings white, lightly dusted with greyish brown. Dark greyish brown discal dots. Am. and pm. lines usually double; pm. line close to outer margin of FW and nearly straight except for a single bend below costa. Some specimens almost unmarked, but look for discal spots on underside of FW and HW.
Range
Nova Scotia to Virgina, west to Mississippi and Lousiana.
Habitat
Mesic deciduous and mixedwood forests.
Season
Late April - August. In Canada the peak adult flight occurs throughout June.
Food
Quaking Aspen and Bigtooth Aspen - can also feed on poplars and willows.
Remarks
One of a number of similar looking, faintly marked white geometroid moths.
The wings are cream-white and unmarked except for a fine specking of brown scales, particularly along the costa. No trace of discal spots or transverse lines. Very similar to Cabera variolaria, but in virginalis the male anntenal pectinations are much shorter, the frons (face) is cream not yellow and white, and the forelegs are grey not tan. Eudeilinea herminiata (Drepanidae) is similar but lacks any trace of the tan-scaled speckling. Subspecies hulstiaria Taylor has reduced speckling and a visible PM line; once treated as specifically distinct from virginalis, McGuffin (1972) considered it a clinal form of virginalis. Whether form hulstaria occurs in the southwest Alberta mountains remains to be documented; Prentice (1963) shows it occuring in BC east to the AB border.
Print References
"Peterson's Field Guide to Eastern Moths"
(1), p. 346
Internet References
The University of Alberta also has
info.
