Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada

Clickable Guide

Interactive image map to choose major taxa 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

National Moth Week was July 19-27, and the Summer 2025 gathering in Louisiana, July 19-27

Photos of insects and people from the 2024 BugGuide gathering in Idaho July 24-27

Moth submissions from National Moth Week 2024

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

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


Species Notodonta scitipennis - Finned-willow Prominent - Hodges#7926

Representative Images

Finned Willow Prominent - Notodonta scitipennis - male Finned-willow Prominent - Notodonta scitipennis Finned-willow Prominent - Notodonta scitipennis - male  7926 – Notodonta scitipennis – Finned-willow Prominent Moth - Notodonta scitipennis Finned-willow Prominent - Notodonta scitipennis Notodontidae: Notodonta scitipennis - Notodonta scitipennis Moth - Notodonta scitipennis - female Finned-willow Prominent Moth  - Notodonta scitipennis - male
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 Notodontidae (Prominent Moths)
Subfamily Notodontinae
Genus Notodonta
Species scitipennis (Finned-willow Prominent - Hodges#7926)

Hodges Number

7926

Size

wingspan 35-48 mm

Identification

Adult: forewing bicolored - trailing half and outer edge mostly dark reddish-brown, and leading half mostly gray; orbicular spot indicated by a rusty streak, and reniform spot by a thin vertical rusty line; basal area has two blackish-brown streaks (giving rise to the common name); male has prominent dark "tooth" on inner margin halfway between base and anal angle
female hindwing dark reddish-brown; male hindwing white with dark anal mark


Larva: outline unique with backward projecting, fleshy humps on second and third abdominal segments; raised angulate eighth abdominal segment; head with front flattened, slightly lobed to either side, festooned with black spots, and pale line running from antenna to vertex; oblique lines to either side of midline on midabdominal segments (description from Caterpillars of Eastern Forests)

Range

southern Canada and northern US east of the Rockies: Alberta to Newfoundland, south to Colorado and Pennsylvania (see distribution map at MPG)

Habitat

deciduous and mixed woods and shrublands

Season

adults fly in June and July
larvae from July to September

Food

larvae feed on leaves of poplar and willow

Life Cycle

one generation per year, with a partial second generation in some areas

See Also

a similar species (N. pacifica) replaces this one west of the Rockies

Internet References