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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Butterflies and Moths (Lepidoptera) » Owlet Moths and kin (Noctuoidea) » Owlet Moths (Noctuidae) » Bird Dropping Moths (Acontiinae) » Acontiini » Ponometia » Prairie Bird-dropping Moth - Hodges#9089 (Ponometia binocula)

Species Ponometia binocula - Prairie Bird-dropping Moth - Hodges#9089

Classification · Hodges Number · Synonyms and other taxonomic changes · Size · Identification · Range · Habitat · Food · See Also · Internet References · Works Cited

Prairie Bird-dropping Moth - Ponometia binocula

Ponometia binocula - Prairie Bird-dropping Moth ? - Ponometia binocula

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 Noctuidae (Owlet Moths)

Subfamily Acontiinae (Bird Dropping Moths)

Tribe Acontiini

Genus Ponometia

Species binocula (Prairie Bird-dropping Moth - Hodges#9089)

Hodges Number

9089

Synonyms and other taxonomic changes

Ponometia binocula – (Grote, 1875)

Tarache binocula - Grote, 1875

Size

wingspan about 2 cm

Identification

forewing is bright white with the outer half crossed by a wide, dark brown and gray band. The costa is white for the basal two-thirds then divided by an orange patch. A dark round spot ringed with paler scales is at the end of the disc. Hindwings are white and shaded with gray-brown along the outer margin upper half.

Type specimen from Bastrop County, Texas

Range

Great Plains from southern Manitoba west to southeastern Alberta, southwest to Arizona. (1)

Habitat

Prairie (considered a good indicator species for a healthy prairie)

Food

larval host is unknown

See Also

Ponometia elegantula, (formerly Conochares arizonae) which is similar but lacks the yellow-orange areas on the FW.

Internet References

Moth Photographers Group

Moths of North Dakota

E. H. Strickland Museum.

Nearctica

Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD)

Ohio Department of Natural Resources - listed as a species of concern in Ohio.

Works Cited

1.	Survey of Utah Moth Species

Contributed by Maury J. Heiman on 29 June, 2010 - 7:34pm
Additional contributions by Randy Hardy
Last updated 9 April, 2014 - 8:17pm

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