Species Scopula ordinata - Hodges#7161

7161

Scopula ordinata (Walker, 1861)

Acidalia ordinata Walker, 1861

Acidalia candidaria Packard, 1873

Acidalia puraria Walker, 1861

ORDINATA: from the Latin "ordinatus" (well-ordered); in entomology, ordinate means arranged in rows [as in, ordinate spots on the wing of an insect]

probably refers to the straight, "well-ordered" lines on the wings

wings pure white with three brownish or greenish-yellow lines: AM line slightly wavy and curved, PM and ST lines straight except for sharp bend near costa; lines continue onto hindwing; small black discal dot on all wings; outer margins angular with whitish fringe

North Carolina to Florida, west to Louisiana

deciduous woods, usually at high elevation

larvae feed on on trilliums (Trillium catesbaei and possibly other species)

...quote by J. Sullivan, North Carolina:

"Scopula ordinata: in the l970 revision of Scopula (Covell, l970), only 8 specimens of the species could be located. I know of several other captures of the species in North Carolina but no captures elsewhere. Its foodplant is thought to be Catesby's trilium (sic) and this moth species has always been considered extremely rare."

Very little information could be found on Scopula ordinata. Troy Bartlett's live BugGuide photos from Georgia, and James Adams' pinned specimen (also from Georgia?) are the only images of this species on the Internet, as of January 2006. For Scopula ordinata to be assigned a global ranking of G5, it presumably must be common to abundant somewhere [perhaps Central or South America?] but no Internet information could be found on its non-North American distribution.

Walker, F., 1861. Catalogue of Lepidoptera Heterocera. Fifth series. List of the specimens of lepidopterous insects in the collection of the British Museum 22: 772

Moth Photographers Group (1)

The Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD) (2)

pinned adult image (James Adams, Dalton State College, Georgia)

food plants; PDF doc and habitat (Stephen Hall and Michael Schafale, North Carolina State Parks)

comments on status in North Carolina (J. Bolling, Lepidopteran Studies: The Ravensford Site, North Carolina)

presence in Florida; list (Michael Thomas, Florida State Collection of Arthropods)

presence in Louisiana; list (Dorothy Pashley Prowell, Louisiana State U.)

synonyms and references (Markku Savela, FUNET)

global status listed as G5 (NatureServe Explorer)