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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Butterflies and Moths (Lepidoptera) » Pyralid and Crambid Snout Moths (Pyraloidea) » Pyralid Moths (Pyralidae) » Phycitinae » Phycitini » Sarata Series » Sarata

Genus Sarata

Classification · Explanation of Names · Numbers · Size · Identification · Range · Season · Food · Internet References

Sarata perfuscalis? - Sarata perfuscalis - male

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 Pyralidae (Pyralid Moths)

Subfamily Phycitinae

Tribe Phycitini

No Taxon (Sarata Series)

Genus Sarata

Explanation of Names

Sarata: a Romanian word meaning "salty", derived from the Sarata River which flows through the town of Sarata in southwestern Ukraine; I don't know how the word relates to the moth genus, which was described by Ragonot in 1887

Numbers

20 species in North America listed at All-Leps

Size

wingspan about 22-32 mm, based on two Internet sources

Identification

Adult: forewing slender, variably pale to dark gray, with or without transverse lines, and usually with liberal speckling of black and white scales; hindwing very broad, variably white to brownish-gray with pale fringe

Range

California and Arizona, north to Wyoming and British Columbia

Season

some species fly in spring in northwestern mountains; others may be active all year in California

Food

larvae of S. tephrella almost certainly feed on Big Sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata)

Internet References

pinned adult image of Sarata incanella and photos of related species/genera by Jim Vargo (Moth Photographers Group)

thumbnail image links to two species, plus collection site maps (All-Leps)

Taxonomic note on Sarata tephrella Ragonot; PDF doc species account, including photos, habitat, seasonality, and presumed larval foodplant (Clifford Ferris and John Norton, Zootaxa, 2004, mapress.com)

presence in Utah; list of 4 species (Joel Johnson, Utah Lepidopterists Society)

presence in California; list of 9 species (U. of California at Berkeley)

presence in British Columbia; list of 3 species (U. of British Columbia)

authors, dates, and original genera of described species in North America (nearctica.com)

meaning of "Sarata" (wikipedia.org)

Contributed by Robin McLeod on 13 February, 2008 - 7:52am

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