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Species Besma endropiaria - Straw Besma - Hodges#6884

Delicate white moth - Besma endropiaria Straw Besma - Besma endropiaria Is this a Straw Besma-Besma endropiaria? - Besma endropiaria - female Unknown Moth - Besma endropiaria - male Besma endropiaria - female straw besma - Besma endropiaria Besma endropiaria Besma sp.? - Besma endropiaria - 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 Besma
Species endropiaria (Straw Besma - Hodges#6884)
Hodges Number
6884
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Besma endropiaria (Grote & Robinson, 1867)
Ellopia endropiaria Grote & Robinson, 1867
Size
Wingspan about 30 mm (1)
Identification
Adult: forewing pale whitish-yellow with faint (sometimes partial) AM and PM lines; fringe concolorous with wing; no discal spot on forewing or hindwing (see comments in See Also section below).
Larva: body greenish-yellow with reddish highlights, mimicking leaf petioles and twigs of maple.
Range
Nova Scotia to Saskatchewan and possibly Alberta, plus adjacent northern states, south in the east to Maryland and Iowa (Besma quercivoraria is more widespread, ranging south to Florida and Arizona, and also occurs in Newfoundland and British Columbia).
Food
Larvae feed on leaves of maple, alder, birch, and oak.
Life Cycle
Overwinters as a pupa; one generation per year.
See Rupert (1944) for rearing information and description of life stages. (2)
See Also
Oak Besma (B. quercivoraria) forewing usually darker tan-yellow, lines well defined, fringe scales usually brown and contrasting against ground color, and dark discal spot almost always present on forewing and hindwing (according to Chris Schmidt of the Canadian National Collection of Insects, Arachnids, and Nematodes); some pale individuals of quercivoraria are virtually identical to endropiaria (see example with no discal spots at CBIF), and cannot be distinguished except by examination of genitalia (thanks to Eric Rickey of Agriculture Canada for confirming the identity of the quercivoraria photo in the above example) [RM]
Works Cited
1.North American Moth Photographers Group
2. A new species of Lambdina, and notes on two species of Besma (Lepidoptera, Geometridæ, Ennominæ).
Laurence Remington Rupert. 1944. Journal of the New York Entomological Society 52(4): 329-332; Pl.11.