Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada

Species Acritogramma metaleuca - Hodges#8682

gray line moth - Acritogramma metaleuca
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 Noctuoidea (Owlet Moths and kin)
Family Erebidae
Subfamily Erebinae
Tribe Omopterini
Genus Acritogramma
Species metaleuca (Acritogramma metaleuca - Hodges#8682)
Hodges Number
8682
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
original combination Matigramma metaleuca Hampson, 1913 (description, pg.329)
transfered to new genus Acritogramma Franclemont, 1986(1)
* phylogenetic sequence # 931013
Numbers
one of 2 species in this genus in North America listed at All-Leps
Size
forewing length 12-13 mm(1)
Identification
Adults - forewing medium gray with black AM and PM lines and light gray shading immediately beyond those lines; PM line has V-shaped or U-shaped jog near middle, and its upper portion is thickened and does not reach costa; terminal line black, wavy; fringe scalloped, pale basally, darker distally; hindwing brownish-gray with dark wavy terminal line
Range
California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and into Mexico
Season
adults fly from March to at least June
See Also
Heteranassa, but easily distinguished from this genus by the conspicuous spines on the mesothoracic tibia and by the absence of dorsal tufts on the abdominal segments
Internet References
pinned adult image copied from CDFA site (Moth Photographers Group)
presence in Arizona; list of specimen by Wielgus in March 2007 [search on genus "Acritogramma"] (Lepidopterists Society Season Summary, U. of Florida)
presence in California; list of 4 specimens with dates and locations (U. of California at Berkeley)
presence in Utah; list (Joel Johnson, Utah Lepidopterists Society)
author, date, and original genus (Markku Savela, FUNET)
Works Cited
1.New species and new genera of noctuids from Arizona, Texas, and Mexico: the genera Matigramma and Acritogramma
John G. Franclemont. 1986. Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 59(1): 143-172.