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

Species Euchlaena irraria - Least-marked Euchlaena - Hodges#6739

Large moth June 2008 23 - Euchlaena irraria - male Least-marked Euchlaena - Hodges#6739 - Euchlaena irraria - male Euchlaena - Euchlaena irraria - female Euchlaena irraria  - Euchlaena irraria - male  6739 – Euchlaena irraria – Least-marked Euchlaena - Euchlaena irraria - male Euchlaena irraria - male Geometrid - Euchlaena irraria - male Euchlaena irraria? - Euchlaena irraria - 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 Angeronini
Genus Euchlaena
Species irraria (Least-marked Euchlaena - Hodges#6739)
Hodges Number
6739
Size
wingspan 37-48 mm
Identification
wings powdery yellowish or brownish-gray with fine speckling; forewing has faint brown AM line and brown sinuous, usually complete PM line; dark brown shading along lower half of PM line, fading back to ground color toward outer margin; discal spots blackish, usually prominent on all wings but may be absent
[adapted from description by Charles Covell]
Range
Nova Scotia to South Carolina, west to Missouri, north to Saskatchewan
Season
adults fly from May to August
Food
larvae feed on leaves of birch, dogwood, maple, meadowsweet, oak, poplar, sweet-fern
Life Cycle
one generation per year
See Also
Confused Eusarca (Eusarca confusaria) is similar but has a straight PM line with no dark shading beyond it (compare images of both species)
Euchlaena marginaria has a yellow PM line with yellow shading beyond it, and heavy speckling on all wings (compare images of both species)
Also see other Euchlaena species)
Internet References
Moth Photographers Group - range map, photos of living and pinned adults.
live adult image (Lynn Scott, Ontario)
pinned adult image (James Adams, Dalton State College, Georgia)
presence in South Carolina; map (John Snyder, Furman U., South Carolina)
distribution in Canada list of provinces (CBIF)