Species Papaipema nelita - Coneflower Borer - Hodges#9502

9502

Strecker, 1898

length is 20 mm, wingspan is 30-35 mm

Adult: forewing orangish-brown to grayish-brown with reniform, orbicular, and claviform spots either white and conspicuous or dark brown and showing little contrast against ground color; subterminal area grayer than rest of wing; PM line almost straight but appears to be toothed due to dark wing veins projecting into subterminal area; ST line irregular/jagged; a dark brown or blackish medial line runs from reniform spot to inner margin; 4 or 5 tiny pale dots along costa near apex

Genitalia:

♀

Nova Scotia to North Carolina, west to Illinois, north to Manitoba; also recorded in Arizona

damp meadows and grasslands where foodplants grow

adults fly from August to October

larvae bore into stems and roots of Cutleaf Coneflower (Rudbeckia laciniata), called Green-headed Coneflower in Peterson's Guide to Eastern Wildflowers

also reported on burdock (Ohio State U.)

may be mistaken for P. eupatorii, whose PM line lacks "teeth" and shows sharp contrast between dark medial area and paler subterminal area (compare images of both species)

North American Moth Photographers Group

BOLD Barcoding Project

pinned adult image of all-dark form from eastern United States [at Smithsonian Institute] (presented by Bruce Walsh, Arizona)

pinned adult image of all-dark form from Arizona (Bruce Walsh, Moths of Southeastern Arizona)

pinned adult image of all-dark form by Jim Wiker, Illinois (Moth Photographers Group)

foodplant and synonyms (Markku Savela, FUNET)

foodplants and flight season (Ohio State U.)

presence in North Carolina; list (Great Smoky Mountain National Park "Bioblitz"; USGS)

distribution in Canada list of provinces (U. of Alberta, using CBIF data)