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Species Catocala muliercula - The Little Wife Underwing - Hodges#8774

Catacola sp. - Catocala muliercula Catocala-View1 - Catocala muliercula Little wife underwing - Catocala muliercula Long caterpillar on Wax Myrtle - Catocala muliercula Catocala muliercula Little Wife Underwing (Catocala muliercula) - Catocala muliercula Little Wife Underwing (Catocala muliercula) - Catocala muliercula Catocala muliercula
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 muliercula (The Little Wife Underwing - Hodges#8774)
Hodges Number
8774
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Catocala muliercula Guenée, 1852 (1), (2), (3)
Catabapta muliercula (4)
Catabapta muliercula var. peramans Hulst, 1884 (4)
Explanation of Names
Specific epithet from Latin meaning "little woman, common working girl."
Size
Wingspan 54-70 mm. (5)
Identification
Forewing reddish-brown, hindwing banded black and yellowish-orange. Most lines on wings black (6).
Range
Coastal Connecticut southwards through Atlantic Coastal Plain (and southwards, in Piedmont, presumably) to Texas.
Type locality: "Amerique Septentrionale." (7)
Season
May-July
Life Cycle
Larvae feed on waxmyrtle (Myrica).
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.7; Pl.7, f.24; Pl.12, f.13 (larva). (3)
Covell, p. 173, plate 36-4 (6)
Guenée A. & J.B. Boisduval, 1852. Histoire naturelle des insectes. Spécies général des lépidoptères. Vol. 7. Noctuélites, tome 3. Roret, Paris, 107. (1)
Works Cited
1. Histoire naturelle des insectes. Spécies général des lépidoptères. Vol. 7. Noctuélites, tome 3.
Achille Guenée & Jean Baptiste Boisduval. 1852. Roret, Paris, 441 pp.
2.On the North American species of Catocala.
Augustus Radcliffe Grote. 1872. Transactions of the American Entomological Society 4: 1-20.
3.Illustrations of the North American species of the genus Catocala.
William Barnes, James Halliday McDunnough. 1918. Memoirs of the AMNH 2(1).
4.The genus Catocala.
George. D. Hulst. 1884. Bulletin of the Brooklyn Entomological Society 7(1): 14-56.
5.Bill Oehlke's North American Catocala
6.Peterson Field Guides: Eastern Moths
Charles V. Covell. 1984. Houghton Mifflin Company.
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.North American Moth Photographers Group