Species Meganola spodia - Ashy Meganola - Hodges#8983.2

8983.2

Meganola spodia Franclemont, 1985 (1)

Phylogenetic sequence #931123

Specific epithet from Latin spodos meaning "ashes," for the ash-grey coloring of the moth.

Eight Meganola species are found in America north of Mexico. (1)

Forewing length: males 9-11 mm; females 12-13 mm (Franclemont, 1985).

Adult: forewing light gray with mottled dark gray or blackish blotch halfway along costa, the blotch sometimes extending inward but becoming more diffuse toward inner margin; antemedial line thin, dark, usually complete; postmedial line double, inconspicuously toothed, extending down from costa in U-shaped loop, then continuing across to inner margin; a smaller dark gray patch usually present along costa at base of wing; terminal area with small brown blotches

hindwing dirty light gray (paler near inner margin) with gray discal spot

Per Franclemont (1985): "...it may be distinguished from that species by the darker, brown tinted gray color of the fore wing; minuscula has the fore wing lighter gray with a whitish or silvery tint, and the black spot at the middle of the costa is triangular, whereas that in spodia is rectangular. The hind wing is darker with a decided brownish tint in spodia, more or less uniform in color, whereas that of minuscula is paler gray, somewhat infuscate on the veins and somewhat whitish toward the base."

Eastern United States plus Quebec and Ontario.

Holotype male: Wrangle Brook Road, Lakehurst, Ocean County, New Jersey, 26 June 1954 (J.G. Franclemont).

Adults fly in June and July in Ontario; May to August in Ohio; probably extended season farther south.

Larvae recorded on Quercus prinus, Quercus stellata, Quercus velutina (2) and possibly Quercus macrocarpa.

Confused Meganola (M. minuscula) tends to have a whiter forewing that lacks the dark gray blotches, and has a whiter hindwing

Other members of Nolinae tend to lack the double postmedial line that forms a U-shaped loop

Butler, L. 1989. Observations on Meganola spodia Franclemont (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) with descriptions of the larvae. Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington. 91: 615-619.

Franclemont, J.G., 1985. A new species of Meganola Dyar from Eastern North America (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae: Nolinae). Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington. 87(4): 871; figs. 1,2.

Moth Photographers Group (MPG) (3)

The Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD) (4)

Butterflies and Moths of North America (BAMONA)(5)