Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada
Clickable Guide
Moths Butterflies Flies Caterpillars Flies Dragonflies Flies Mantids Cockroaches Bees and Wasps Walkingsticks Earwigs Ants Termites Hoppers and Kin Hoppers and Kin Beetles True Bugs Fleas Grasshoppers and Kin Ticks Spiders Scorpions Centipedes Millipedes

Calendar
Upcoming Events

Photos of insects and people from the 2022 BugGuide gathering in New Mexico, July 20-24

National Moth Week was July 23-31, 2022! See moth submissions.

Photos of insects and people from the Spring 2021 gathering in Louisiana, April 28-May 2

Photos of insects and people from the 2019 gathering in Louisiana, July 25-27

Photos of insects and people from the 2018 gathering in Virginia, July 27-29

Photos of insects and people from the 2015 gathering in Wisconsin, July 10-12


Previous events


TaxonomyBrowse
Info
ImagesLinksBooksData

Species Catocala amestris - Three-staffed Underwing - Hodges#8844

Noctuidae, Three-staffed Underwing - Catocala amestris Noctuidae, Three-staffed Underwing - Catocala amestris Three-staffed Underwing - Catocala amestris Three-staffed Underwing - Hodges#8844 - Catocala amestris Catocala amestris Unknown Caterpillar - Catocala amestris Three-staffed Underwing - Hodges#8844 - Catocala amestris Catocala amestris
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 Catocalini
Genus Catocala (Underwings)
Species amestris (Three-staffed Underwing - Hodges#8844)
Hodges Number
8844
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Catocala amestris Strecker, 1874 (1), (2), (3), (4), (5)
Catocala anna Grote, 1874 (6), (7)
Catocala westcottii Grote, 1878 (195), (7)
Explanation of Names
Specific epithet likely for Amestris, the wife of Xerxes I of Persia.
Size
Wingspan 43-50 mm. (8)
Range
Type locality: Texas (Mr. J. Boll). (1), (9)
Food
Leadplant (Amorpha canescens), Indigo Bush (Amorpha fruticosa), Black Locust (Robinia pseudoacacia). (8)
Life Cycle
1)larva on lead plant 2)larva 3)larva 4)pupa 5)adult
Print References
Barnes, Wm. & J.H. McDunnough, 1918. Illustrations of the North American species of the genus Catocala. Memoirs of the AMNH 2(1): p.34; Pl.8, f.17-18 Pl.12, f.7 (larva). (4)
Strecker, H., 1874. Lepidoptera, Rhopaloceres and Heteroceres, indigenous and exotic; with descriptions and colored illustrations (v.11). Owen's Steam Book & Job Printing, p.96; Pl.11, f.6. (1)
Works Cited
1.Lepidoptera, Rhopaloceres and Heteroceres, indigenous and exotic; with descriptions and colored illustrations (v. 8-11)
Herman Strecker. 1874. Owen's Steam Book & Job Printing.
2.The genus Catocala.
George. D. Hulst. 1884. Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society 7(1): 14-56.
3.Notes on some species of Catocala.
William Beutenmüller . 1903. Bulletin of the AMNH, 19(19): 505-510.
4.Illustrations of the North American species of the genus Catocala.
William Barnes, James Halliday McDunnough. 1918. Memoirs of the AMNH 2(1).
5.Systematics of moths in the genus Catocala (Lepidoptera, Erebidae) IV. Nomenclatorial stabilization of the ....
Lawrence Gall, David Hawks. 2010. Zookeys 39: 37-83.
6.Remarks on North American Noctuidae with descriptions of new species
A. R. Grote . 1874. Transactions of the American Entomological Society 5: 89-98.
7.Systematics of moths in the genus Catocala (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae). III.
Gall, Lawrence F. & David C. Hawks. 2002. Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society. 56(4): 234-264.
8.Bill Oehlke's North American Catocala
9.Systematics of moths in the genus Catocala (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae). I.
Gall, Lawrence F. & David C. Hawks. 1990. Fieldiana. Zoology. 59: 1-16.