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

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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

Genus Crambidia

Representative Images

Erebidae: Crambidia casta - Crambidia casta Crambidia sp - Crambidia Hodges#8048 - Crambidia myrlosea Moth - Crambidia casta Uniform Lichen Moth - Crambidia uniformis Pearly-winged Lichen Moth - Hodges#8051 - Crambidia casta Crambidia pallida Crambidia casta
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 Arctiinae (Tiger and Lichen Moths)
Tribe Lithosiini (Lichen Moths)
Subtribe Lithosiina
Genus Crambidia

Synonyms and other taxonomic changes

Crambidia Packard, 1864

Numbers

10 species in North America (1)
6 species in Canada (CBIF)

Size

wingspan 12-40 mm

Identification

forewing slender, white to pale bluish-white with faint speckles in several species; C. pallida has a pale yellowish-brown forewing with slightly darker streaks; C. uniformis is uniformly dark gray; C. lithosioides may be dark gray or medium brown with streaks
hindwing more than twice as broad as forewing but similarly colored and without markings

Range

all of United States and southern Canada, plus Yukon Territory

Habitat

forests and woodlands; adults are attracted to light

Season

some species are active all year in the south; adults fly from May to September in the north

Food

larvae feed on lichens, and show a preference for the algae component of lichens that grow on tree bark, rather than lichens on rocks (Colorado State U.)

Life Cycle

two generations per year

Internet References

pinned adult images of 3 species occurring in eastern Canada (CBIF)
pinned adult images of 4 species occurring in western Canada (CBIF)
Moth Photographers Group--Jim Vargo images
pinned adult images (James Adams, Dalton State College, Georgia)

Works Cited

1.Nearctica: Nomina Insecta Nearctica
Contributed by Robin McLeod on 2 December, 2005 - 10:33am
Additional contributions by cotinis
Last updated 17 May, 2012 - 2:10pm

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