Species Petrophila daemonalis - Devil's River Petrophila - Hodges#4771

4771

Petrophila daemonalis (Dyar)

Orig. Comb: Elophila daemonalis Dyar 1908

daemonalis - Latin for 'pertaining to evil,' (1), a reference to its type locality near the Devils River.

7 mm wing length

Recognized as a Petrophila by the "V" shaped white bands on the outer part of the forewings with adjacent orange bands, along with a series of black/metallic terminal spots on the hindwings. The forewing and hindwing both have more yellow on them, particularly in the median area of the wings, than any other Texas species in the genus.

endemic (?) to Edwards Plateau of central Texas. (Dyar, 1908)

May-Sept (BG data)

Type series: Thirteen specimens, Devil's River, Texas, May 5 and 6, 1907, collected by Bishopp & Pratt.

Texas Parks & Wildlife considers this to be a "Species of Greatest Conservation Need" (SGCN) (2)

Dyar, H.G. 1908. Description of eleven new North American Pyralidae, with notes on a few others. Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington, 10(1-2): 112-118. (112) (3)

Moth Photographers Group - MPG (image but no further data as of May 2016)