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Species Usingeriessa onyxalis - Hodges#4767

Usingeriessa sp. - Usingeriessa onyxalis ID Request - Usingeriessa onyxalis ID Request - Usingeriessa onyxalis No. 162 Usingeriessa brunnildalis  - Usingeriessa onyxalis No. 179  Usingeriessa onyxalis? - Usingeriessa onyxalis Hodges#4767 - Usingeriessa onyxalis Hodges#4768 - Usingeriessa onyxalis moth - Usingeriessa onyxalis
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 Pyraloidea (Pyralid and Crambid Snout Moths)
Family Crambidae (Crambid Snout Moths)
Subfamily Acentropinae
Tribe Argyractini
Genus Usingeriessa
Species onyxalis (Usingeriessa onyxalis - Hodges#4767)
Hodges Number
4767
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Synonyms:
Cataclysta divulsalis Walker; Druce 1896(1)
Cataclysta onyxalis Hampson 1897(1)
Elophila cancellalis Dyar 1917(2)(1)
Size
Forewing 7-8 mm.(1)
Identification
General coloration dark brown and the maculation is crisp and contrasting compared to U. brunnildalis. Forewings with wide dark basal area, followed by a narrow dark AM line. The median area is lighter, but heavily dusted with dark scaling, and outwardly delimited by an angular dark PM line. The broad, distinct, dark-brown subapical triangle is characteristic. It is separated from a narrow orangish dark-edged terminal band by a white wedge. The HWs are generally patterned like the FWs but with a series of five black subterminal dots separated by metallic blue patches. These subterminal spots are preceded basally by a crenulated black line. [Adapted from Munroe's description.](1)
Range
Edwards Plateau of Texas, south to Costa Rica and perhaps farther.(1)
Habitat
Adults are attracted to lights near clear-running streams.
Season
Apparently two flight periods, May-August and October-November.
Life Cycle
Early stages are unknown but the genus is presumed to have life history traits similar to Parargyactis and other Acentropinae with aquatic, algae-feeding larvae.(3)
See Also
Usingeriessa brunnildalis:

Described from California and ranging from Sonoma and Placer counties south to San Diego County and thence to Arizona and possibly West Texas (Munroe recites "one specimen identified by Lange" from Del Rio, which is more likely to be U. onyxalis).
Works Cited
1.The Moths of North America North of Mexico. Fascicle 13.1A. Scopariinae, Nymphulinae
Eugene Munroe. 1972. The Wedge Entomological Research Foundation.
2.Notes on North American Nymphulinae (Lepidoptera, Pyralidae)
Dyar, Harrison G. 1917. Insecutor Inscitiae Menstruus 5(4-6):75-77.
3.The Moths of America North of Mexico, including Greenland. Fascicle 13.1c. Pyraloidea: Pyralidae (part),...
Eugene Munroe. 1974. E.W. Classey.