Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
alienaria determined to be amicaria via DNA
Habitat
throughout the United States and southern Canada
Remarks
DO NOT ADD IMAGES TO THIS TAXON. For now, all
Probole images should be placed under
Probole amicaria. See info below and comments in the Moth Forum
here.
After revision and DNA work (among numerous other approaches) on the genus by Tim Tomon, it was determined that there is only a single Probole species in North America, and so they have been lumped under the senior name, amicaria. At this point, there is no longer any separate species of nepiasaria, alienaria or nyssaria.
The full publication of his revision doesn't appear to be available yet, correspondence directly with Tim indicates the revision is official. There is this 2007 abstract of the research and forthcoming revision paper:
http://esa.confex.com/esa/2007/techprogram/paper_31679.htm; Which in part states,
"Molecular studies measured sequence divergence in the mitochondrial COI gene from various geographical regions, seasonal broods, and morphological types. Several morphological types were reared from isofemale cultures, indicating a lack of support for a classification that includes more than one species. COI sequence data show relatively low intrageneric divergence ( < 2.8%) when compared to other closely related geometrid moths, again indicating a lack of support for recognition of more than one species. As a result of these findings, the genus Probole is treated as containing a single, highly variable species, Probole amicaria (Herrich-Schäffer)."