Species Digrammia triviata - Hodges#6385

6385

Digrammia triviata (Barnes & McDunnough, 1917)

Phasiane triviata Barnes & McDunnough, 1917

Phasiane woodgateata Cassino, 1928

Wingspan 22-25 mm. (1)

"It is geographically and seasonally variable." Douglas C. Ferguson. Pg. 258, Moths of North America Fascile 17.2.

There are records from the western half of the United States and southwestern Canada. (2)

Described from specimens collected in the Chiricahua and Huachuca Mountains of southern Arizona. (1)

Texas, usually a more western species (Ann Hendrickson)

Larval hosts include alligator juniper (Juniperus deppeana) and Rocky Mountain juniper (J. scopulorum) and possibly Ashe Juniper (J. ashei) (but see notes below in Remarks).

In the Moths of North America, Fascicle 17.2 Douglas C. Ferguson discusses the pallidata-group on pages 256-259. Paraphrasing, he states that D. pallidata and D. triviata are closely related and often confused where their ranges overlap. D. pallidata occures in Central East Texas as far as the latitude of San Antonio and west to a longitude from Uvalde to Brown counties. I have now reared many broods throughout the year and all have tested at BOLD as D. triviata (but see note below). On the D. pallidata page are posted variations that have been documented from Edwards County, Texas, in hopes they will be helpful to others. (Ann Hendrickson)

Added caution: Barcoding is not cleanly separating D. triviata and D. pallidata, the latter occurring in mixed BINs with the former. Further, moths from the Great Basin that are out of range of any Texas pallidata look consistently different from the "triviata" in the Texas Hill Country. The Great Basin moths fit Ferguson's description(3) of triviata (e.g. with the bent comma-shaped PM spots on the costa and lacking any black smudge opposite the cell on the FW) while the Texas Hill Country examples are within the variation in pallidata described by Ferguson(3). Finally, IF there is some fidelity to the juniper species which each of these species uses as a host plant, then, excepting long-distance strays, triviata (Rocky Mountain and Alligator junipers) will be primarily confined in Texas to the Trans-Pecos and northern Panhandle. A good Texas example of the Great Basin triviata pattern is Don Riley's example from the Davis Mountains. By contrast, pallidata (Ashe juniper and Eastern redcedar) will be found primarily in East, North, and Central Texas, primarily east of the Pecos River. (Chuck Sexton)

Barnes, W. & J.H. McDunnough. Contributions to the natural history of the Lepidoptera of North America 4(3): 233-234, pl.23, f.1 (1)

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