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Species Pero meskaria - Meske's Pero - Hodges#6747

Representative Images

Meske's Pero - Hodges #6747 - Pero meskaria - male Strange shape - Pero meskaria Meske's Pero - Hodges #6747 - Pero meskaria Meske's Pero - Hodges #6747 - Pero meskaria Hodges#6747 - Pero meskaria - female moth - Pero meskaria Pero meskaria (Meske's Pero) - Pero meskaria Meske's Pero - Pero meskaria
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 Geometroidea (Geometrid and Swallowtail Moths)
Family Geometridae (Geometrid Moths)
Subfamily Ennominae
Tribe Azelinini
Genus Pero
Species meskaria (Meske's Pero - Hodges#6747)

Hodges Number

6747

Synonyms and other taxonomic changes

Pero meskaria (Packard, 1876)
Stenaspilates meskaria Packard, 1876
Azelina meskaria
Azelina albomacularia Hy. Edwards, 1882
Azelina arizonaria Hy. Edwards, 1882
Selidosema muricolor Hulst, 1896
Stenaspilates albidula Hulst, 1900

Explanation of Names

Named in honor of Otto von Meske (1837-1890), who had two other Lepidoptera named after him around the same time, Catocala meskei (Grote, 1873) and Hesperia meskei (Edwards, 1877), as well as the genus Meskea Grote, 1877.

Size

Powell & Opler (2009) listed the forewing length 13-16 mm.
Poole (1987) did not specify size but noted some Texas specimens half the size of those from Arizona.

Range

Powell & Opler (2009) listed the range to include southern Texas west to California(1), east through Nevada, Utah(2) and western Colorado(3).(4)

Habitat

Poole (1987) reported the species inhabits drier areas of the southwestern United States.(5)

Food

Poole (1987) reported Torrie & Gray reared on Clematis drummondii (Drummond's Clematis) in Texas

See Also

The convex lobes of the forewing's PM line distinguish meskaria from other species of Pero.

Print References

Packard, A.S. 1876. A monograph of the geometrid moths or Phalaenidae of the United States. United States Geological Survey of the Territories 10:: 213, plate 13, fig. 50. (6)
Poole, R.W. 1987. A taxonomic revision of the New World moth genus Pero (Lepidoptera: Geometridae). USDA Technical Bulletin 1698: 1-257 (PDF)
Powell, J.A. & P.A. Opler 2009. Moths of Western North America. University of California Press. plate 29, fig. 14; p. 214. (4)

Internet References

Moth Photographers Group (7)
Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD) (8)
pinned adult images of male and female and larval foodplant reference (Bruce Walsh, Moths of Southeastern Arizona)
University of California, Berkeley
Alpheus Spring Packard Jr. (1839–1905)

Works Cited

1.Essig Museum of Entomology, California Moth Species List
2.Survey of Utah Moth Species
3.Lepidoptera (Butterflies and Moths) of Colorado National Monument (U.S. Geological Survey)
4.Moths of Western North America
Powell and Opler. 2009. UC Press.
5.A taxonomic revision of the New World moth genus Pero (Lepidoptera: Geometridae).
Robert W. Poole. 1987. USDA Technical Bulletin 1698: 1-257.
6.A Monograph of the Geometrid or Phalaenidae of the United States.
A. S. Packard. 1876. United States Geological Survey of the Territories 10: 1-599.
7.North American Moth Photographers Group
8.BOLD: The Barcode of Life Data Systems
Contributed by Robin McLeod on 3 December, 2007 - 1:59pm
Additional contributions by Maury Heiman, Randy Hardy
Last updated 4 March, 2018 - 3:33pm

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