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Species Antepione thisoaria - Variable Antepione - Hodges#6987

Representative Images

Antepione thisoaria? - Antepione thisoaria Variable Antepione - Antepione thisoaria Variable Antepione, Plainsboro Preserve - Antepione thisoaria Geometrid Moth: Variable Antepione? - Antepione thisoaria Antepione thisoaria Variable Antepione - Antepione thisoaria NC, SwainCounty - Antepione thisoaria Antepione thisoaria - 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 Geometroidea (Geometrid and Swallowtail Moths)
Family Geometridae (Geometrid Moths)
Subfamily Ennominae
Tribe Ourapterygini
Genus Antepione
Species thisoaria (Variable Antepione - Hodges#6987)

Hodges Number

6987

Synonyms and other taxonomic changes

Antepione thisoaria (Guenée, [1858])
Heterolocha thisoaria Guenée 1857
Many synonyms listed in the revision partly due to the large range. (1)

Size

wingspan 27-40 mm

Identification

Adult seasonally and sexually dimorphic, but middle of outer margin of hindwing and forewing conspicuously pointed in all forms, and usually a dark triangular patch along costa near apex of forewing (may be absent in female)
Spring brood, both sexes: mottled light brown wings (form "furciferata")
Summer brood male: bright yellow with reddish-brown shading beyond PM line
Summer brood female: all yellow

Larva: Caterpillars of Eastern Forests(2) has photo and description.

Range

Throughout North America east of the 95th parallel, south to Mexico, Guatemala and Costa Rica. (1)(3)
Moth Photographers Group - large range map with collection dates. Note that records west of the 95th parallel instead refer to Antepione imitata.(1)

Season

The first generation flies in late spring and early summer, and the second from mid-July to late August on Block Island, RI.(4)

Food

larvae feed on leaves of apple, maple, persimmon, sumac, and other plants

Life Cycle

two generations per year

See Also

Antepione imitata is a western species that only occurs as far east as western Texas.(1)

Works Cited

1.A revision of the genus Antepione (Packard) with description of the new genus Pionenta (Ferris) Lepidoptera, ...
Clifford D. Ferris. 2010. Zookeys 71: 49–70.
2.Caterpillars of Eastern Forests
David L. Wagner, Valerie Giles, Richard C. Reardon, Michael L. McManus. 1998. U.S. Dept of Agriculture, Forest Health Technology Enterprise Team.
3.Moths of Dallas County, Texas
4.Block Island Moths
5.North American Moth Photographers Group
6.BOLD: The Barcode of Life Data Systems