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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Butterflies and Moths (Lepidoptera) » Owlet Moths and kin (Noctuoidea) » Erebidae » Erebinae » Euclidiini » Euclidia » Toothed Somberwing - Hodges#8731 (Euclidia cuspidea)

Species Euclidia cuspidea - Toothed Somberwing - Hodges#8731

Classification · Hodges Number · Synonyms and other taxonomic changes · Numbers · Size · Identification · Range · Habitat · Season · Food · Life Cycle · Remarks · See Also · Internet References · Works Cited
Moth - Euclidia cuspidea Moth - Euclidia cuspidea Moth - Euclidia cuspidea doggy face moth - Euclidia cuspidea moth - Euclidia cuspidea Moth - Euclidia cuspidea Euclidea cuspidea ? - Euclidia cuspidea moth - Euclidia cuspidea
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 Erebinae
Tribe Euclidiini
Genus Euclidia
Species cuspidea (Toothed Somberwing - Hodges#8731)
Hodges Number
8731
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Euclidia cuspidea Hübner, 1818)
Phylogenetic sequence # 930929 (1)
Numbers
Lafontaine & Schmidt (2010) listed two species of the genus Euclidia in America north of Mexico. (1)
Size
Forewing length 15–18 mm. (2)
Identification
Adult - forewing purplish-gray and brown with distinctive black PM triangle, basal and apical spots, and AM band; hindwing yellowish-brown with two blackish lines and basal shading. [description by Charles Covell]

Larvae - slender and cylindrical, brown with fine longitudinal striation, forming subdorsal, stigmatal and subventral bands, with the stigmatal stripe comprised of four striae and running onto the side of the head. (Forbes, 1954)
Range
Quebec west to western Alberta, north to the Northwest Territories and south to the Gulf of Mexico. Cuspidea is replaced in BC by the very closely related and similar appearing E. ardita (E.H. Strickland Entomological Museum) [Randy Hardy]
Habitat
Grassy wooded edges, clearings and mesic meadows with long grass. (E.H. Strickland Entomological Museum)[Randy Hardy]
Season
The main flight period appears to be March to August. (3)
Food
The larvae feed on clover (Trifolium sp.) and grasses (Graminiae) (Forbes, 1954); also reported to use sweetfern (Comptonia sp.) and lupine (Lupinus sp.) (Covell, 1984).
Life Cycle
Unusual in that the adults are active both during the day and the night, and are attracted to light. They also come to sugar bait (Handfield, 1999). There appears to be a single annual brood. (E.H. Strickland Entomological Museum)[Randy Hardy]
Remarks
In flight Euclidia greatly resemble skippers of the genus Erynnis; they flush from the ground and fly rapidly for 20 meters or so before dropping back to the ground. (E.H. Strickland Entomological Museum)
See Also
Euclidia ardita a western species.


Caenurgina species and Drasteria species are superficially similar but have a different pattern on the forewing
Internet References
Pacific Northwest Moths (2)
Moth Photographers Group (3)
pinned adult image(CBIF)
distribution in Canada (CBIF)
E.H. Strickland Entomological Museum
Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD) (4)
Works Cited
1.Annotated check list of the Noctuoidea (Insecta, Lepidoptera) of North America north of Mexico.
Donald J. Lafontaine, B. Christian Schmidt. 2010. ZooKeys 40: 1–239 .
2.Pacific Northwest Moths
3.North American Moth Photographers Group
4.BOLD: The Barcode of Life Data Systems
Contributed by Hannah Nendick-Mason on 21 September, 2004 - 9:50pm
Additional contributions by Robin McLeod, Maury Heiman, Randy Hardy
Last updated 6 July, 2018 - 9:10am

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