Other Common Names
Straight-lined Cydosia Moth (MPG)
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Cydosia aurivitta Grote & Robinson, 1868
Phylogenetic sequence # 931254
(1) Numbers
Lafontaine & Schmidt (2010) listed three species of the genus
Cydosia in America north of Mexico.
(1)Identification
Extremely sexually dimorphic forewing pattern. Rare, totally blue-black examples exist. (3)
The above note is apparently erroneous. All forms are found in both sexes:
• Form aurivitta has black forewings and broad reddish-orange transverse bands.
• Form imitella, described as a species referring to specimens from western Texas misidentified as nobilitella (Cramer, 1780) and separate from aurivitta, is similar to the latter but with white spots within the black spaces.
•
Cydosia majuscula (Edwards, 1881), raised from synonymy of
aurivitta in Lafontaine & Schmidt (2015)
(4), refers to the former extreme black form.
Food
Heppner (2003) reported the host was unknown.
(6)See Also
Cydosia nobilitella also reaches the U.S. in Florida
(7)
Print References
Grote, A.R. & C.T. Robinson, 1869. Descriptions of American Lepidoptera. - No. 4. Transactions of the American Entomological Society, 2:
186.
Stretch, R.H., 1872. Illustrations of the Zygænidæ & Bombycidæ of North America, 1:
242-243.
Wagner, D.L., K.L. Keegan, B.B. Nall, V.G. Bugh, J. Rota, 2019. A tale of two caterpillars and reclassification of Cerathosia Smith and Cydosia Duncan [& Westwood] (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae). Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society, 73(1):
1-4.