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Species Leucania phragmitidicola - Phragmites Wainscot - Hodges#10444

Phragmites Wainscot - Leucania phragmitidicola Phragmites Wainscot - Leucania phragmitidicola Leucania phragmitidicola Leucania phragmitidicola - Phragmites Wainscot - Hodges#10444 - Leucania phragmitidicola Leucania phragmitidicola? - Leucania phragmitidicola - female Leucania phragmitidicola - male Leucania phragmitidicola - female Leucania - Leucania phragmitidicola
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 Leucaniini
Genus Leucania
Species phragmitidicola (Phragmites Wainscot - Hodges#10444)
Hodges Number
10444
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Leucania phragmitidicola Guenée, 1852
Cirphis phragmitidicola
Explanation of Names
specific epithet refers to the tall reed Phragmites, presumably a larval foodplant
Size
wingspan about 32 mm, based on photo by Jim Vargo at MPG
Identification
Adult: forewing light tan but not uniformly-colored: an indistinct and diffuse pale band runs obliquely from apex to inner margin, surrounded on both sides by slightly darker shading; PM line composed of several dark but inconspicuous dots; main vein running from base to middle of wing is whitish, bordered by thick dark line on inner edge; slightly darker shading along outer margin; hindwing white with no dark border
Genitalia:


Larvae: see Godfrey, 1972, p. 94 (2) & Wagner, 2011, p. 509 (3)
Range
eastern two-thirds of North America
Season
adults fly from June to October
Food
larvae feed on grasses, presumably including Phragmites species
See Also
Leucania linda forewing darker; PM line composed of well-defined crescent of conspicuous black dots
L. linita forewing uniformly-colored; main vein not conspicuously dark-edged
Lesser Wainscot (Mythimna oxygala) forewing uniformly-colored; main vein not conspicuously dark-edged; PM line composed of two dark dots - not several
Scirpus Wainscot (Leucania scirpicola) has not been recorded in Canada, according to CBIF
other species of Leucania have multiple dark/blackish streaks on forewing, absent in L. phragmitidicola
Print References
Guenée, 1852 in Boisduval & Guenée, Histoire Naturelle des Insectes. Species Général des Lépidoptéres. Tome Cinquiéme. Noctuélites. Tome 1. 5(1): 89
Hampson, G.F. 1905. Catalogue of the Lepidoptera Phalænæ in the British Museum. 5: 483
Smith, J.B. 1903. Contributions toward a monograph of the Lepidopterous Family Noctuidae of boreal North America. A revision of the moths referred to the genus Leucania with descriptions of new species. No. 1283. Proceedings of the United States National Museum. 25: 197.
Walker, F.W. 1856. Noctuidae. List of the specimens of lepidopterous insects in the collection of the British Museum. 9: 97