Species Bleptina caradrinalis - Bent-winged Owlet - Hodges#8370

8370

Bent-wing Owlet

Variable Snout(1)

Bleptina caradrinalis Guenée, 1854

* phylogenetic sequence #930520

Wingspan 22-32 mm.

Forewing length 11-13 mm.(2)

Larva to 15 mm. (1)

Adult - forewing dark grey-brown or purple-brown; male has rather narrow, pointed forewings, with costa decidedly concave in center (not as much so in female); antemedian and postmedian lines jagged and indistinct; median line diffuse; subterminal line narrow, yellowish, and stands out against dark ground color; orbicular spot small or absent; reniform spot larger and much more prominent, especially in male (adapted from description at U. of Alberta)

Larva - course granulated brown to brown-black. See Crumb description in Print References. Figured in Wagner, 2011.

Throughout southern Canada, the United States and south to Brazil.

Wooded and shrubby areas, especially near water.(3)

Adults fly from May to September in the north and year round in the south.(4) On Block Island, RI, the species is bivoltine, with adults recorded late May through late September with a first peak in abundance in late June and early July and a second in August and September.(5)

Larvae feed on dead leaves and barberry, clover, hickory leaves.(1)

Most abundant Herminiine in the east.(1)

Covell Jr., C.V. 1984. Field Guide to Moths of Eastern North America. Houghton Mifflin Company. p.325 & plate 41.25(6)

Crumb, S.E. 1956. The Larvae of the Phalaenidae. U.S. Department of Agriculture Technical Bulletin 1135: 340(7)

Powell, J.A. & P.A. Opler 2009. Moths of Western North America. University of California Press. p.254, pl.43.2f(2)

Wagner, D.L., Dale F. Schweitzer, J. Bolling Sullivan & Richard C. Reardon 2011. Owlet Caterpillars of Eastern North America. Princeton University Press. p.53(1)

Moth Photographers Group - species page with photographs of living and pinned adults.

Pacific Northwest Moths