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

Genus Hypocala

Underwing moth? - Hypocala andremona Hypocala andremona Undrwing - Hypocala andremona moth - Hypocala andremona moth - Hypocala andremona Moth 102316bara - Hypocala andremona moth - Hypocala andremona Unknown Moth - Hypocala andremona
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 Erebidae
Subfamily Hypocalinae
Genus Hypocala
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
the subfamily placement of this genus is uncertain: Poole (1989) placed it in subfamily Ophiderinae, treated as subfamily Calpinae by Kitching & Rawlins, in Kristensen (1999) [see Butterflies and Moths of the World]; it was placed in subfamily Catocalinae by Troubridge and Lafontaine (2004), and provisionally placed in Erebinae [as incertae sedis] by All-Leps (2006)
Numbers
1 species in North America listed at All-Leps
16 species worldwide
Size
wingspan 43-49 mm, based on two Internet photos
Identification
Adult: forewing brown to gray with diffuse speckling; reniform spot either dark gray or barely noticeable; ST line composed of two joined arcs, touching outer margin at the point where they join; small pale patch may be present in terminal area near anal angle, and also midway along inner margin; hindwing black with large irregular yellow or orange pattern on inner half, and partial terminal band of the same color
Range
Central America, Mexico, and southern United States from California to Florida but apparently most common in Texas
an irregular wanderer farther north, occasionally to mid-latitude states, and rarely to northern states and southern Ontario
Internet References
pinned adult image from Guadeloupe (Pierre Zagatti, Catalogue of the Lepidoptera of the French Antilles)
live adult image from Texas (Dave Czaplak)
pinned adult image from Canada (CBIF)