Species Melanchra adjuncta - Hitched Arches - Hodges#10292

10292

Chenille à chevrons - En français… Ilze V-G.

Melanchra adjuncta (Guenée, 1852)

Chariptera adjuncta Guenée, 1841 (nomina nuda)

Mamestra adjuncta Guenée, 1852

wingspan 29-40 mm

Adult: forewing ground color dark gray or black, providing good contrast against the following four areas of white: a small basal patch, small orbicular spot, large reniform spot, and broad wavy terminal line; reniform spot with wavy basal margin and curved black line in center; all-dark melanic specimens fairly common in Ontario [Jeff Crolla, per. com.]

hindwing gray, darker at outer margin

Larva: two forms - either light green or light brown; both forms have darker diagonal markings dorsally and ventrolaterally, and thin whitish dorsal line; head dark with 3 white dorsal lines; 8th abdominal segment humped, with dark lateral patch

coast to coast in southern Canada and northern US, south to California, Arkansas, North Carolina - Map (MPG)

wooded riparian areas, wood edges, clearings, brushy areas, waste places

adults fly from May to September

larvae feed on leaves of herbaceous plants (alfalfa, asparagus, bracken, clover, dandelion, goldenrod, milkweed, plantain, trefoil) and less commonly on woody plants (alder, birch, elder, elm, gooseberry, honeysuckle, willow) (1)

two generations per year

Boisduval in Boisduval & Guenée, 1852. Noctuélites. Histoire Naturelle des Insectes. Species Général des Lépidoptéres. 5 (1): 199

Guenée, 1841 Annales de la Société entomologique de France. 10: 243

Moth Photographers Group - MPG (2)

The Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD) (3)

Pacific Northwest Moths (4)

Butterflies and Moths of North America - BAMONA (5)

live larvae and adult images plus other info (Jeremy Tatum, Butterflies and Moths of Southern Vancouver Island)

pinned adult image (James Adams, Dalton State College, Georgia)

food plants; PDF doc plus flight season and life cycle (Macrolepidoptera of Mont Saint-Hilaire Region, McGill U., Quebec)(6)

The Lepidoptera of Wayne County, Ohio (Ohio State U.)

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