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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Butterflies and Moths (Lepidoptera) » Geometrid and Swallowtail Moths (Geometroidea) » Geometrid Moths (Geometridae) » Ennominae » Boarmiini » Epimecis » Tulip-tree Beauty - Hodges#6599 (Epimecis hortaria)

Species Epimecis hortaria - Tulip-tree Beauty - Hodges#6599

Tuliptree Beauty - Epimecis hortaria - male

Tulip-tree Beauty - Epimecis hortaria - female

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 Boarmiini

Genus Epimecis

Species hortaria (Tulip-tree Beauty - Hodges#6599)

Hodges Number

6599

Synonyms and other taxonomic changes

Epimecis hortaria (Fabricius, 1794)

E. liriodendraria (J. E. Smith, 1797)

E. diserptaria (Walker, 1860)

E. amplaria (Walker, 1860)

E. dendraria (Guenée, 1857); (form)

E. gravilinearia (Andrews, 1878)

Epimecis carbonaria Haimbach, 1915; (melanic form) (1)

Numbers

There are six Epimecis species found in America north of Mexico.

Size

43-55mm wingspan (2)

Identification

Adult: Large geometer. Scalloped outer margin on hindwing. Variable pattern. Typical pattern is whitish background with black zigzag lines. Two other forms: "dendraria" has broad median and subterminal lines, and melanic "carbonaria" is blackish with white edging on parts of lines. (2)

Larva:

Range

New England and southern Ontario to Florida, west to Illinois/Missouri/Texas. (2)

Season

Late March to early October (2)

* adults fly year round in Florida

Food

Poplars, pawpaw, sassafrass, and tulip-trees. (2)

Print References

Covell, p. 355 & plate 52 #12 (2)

Internet References

Moth Photographers Group

Moths of Dallas County, Texas

BOLD - Barcode of Life Data Systems

Moths of Maryland

Works Cited

1.	New Heterocera (Lep.). Frank Haimbach. 1915. Entomological news, and proceedings of the Entomological Section of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 26: 321-325.

2.	Peterson Field Guides: Eastern Moths Charles V. Covell. 1984. Houghton Mifflin Company.

Contributed by Troy Bartlett on 16 February, 2004 - 12:32pm
Additional contributions by Mike Boone, cotinis, Maury Heiman, Robert Lord Zimlich, Randy Hardy
Last updated 8 February, 2018 - 10:28pm

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