Identification
Adult: forewing off-white or cream with tan and yellow shading; orbicular and reniform spots and subterminal line yellowish; other lines represented by tiny black dots on veins; gray shading between oribicular and reniform spots and below reniform spot; two gray blotches along outer margin; hindwing a mix of gray and yellowish shading with dark discal spot and pale fringe
[adapted from description by Charles Covell]
Larva: body cream, tan, gray-green to brown and gray with weak charcoal markings, paler than related pinions; dorsum on A1-A7 with backward projecting chevrons; dark patches enlarged, connecting over dorsum on A8 (but not A7); thin broken middorsal stripe often infused with peach or yellow; white subdorsal stripe similarly developed; thin black wavy often broken stripe running along upper edge of broad white to yellowish lateral stripe; body mostly free of pigmentation below broad spiracular stripe; dorsal setae from small white round bases; diameter of bases about one-third distance between D1 and D2; thoracic plate with dark quadrangular patch to either side of midline that ends at subdorsal stripe; head black or dark reddish-brown with black reticulations and coronal bars
[adapted from description by David Wagner et al]
genitalia
Range
Nova Scotia to Saskatchewan and adjacent northern states, south to northern Georgia and Missouri; also recorded in Florida
Habitat
deciduous forests and woodlots; adults are nocturnal and come to light and bait
Season
adults fly from August to November, and again from February to May (late March to early June in the north)
larvae in June and July
Food
larvae feed on leaves of apple, ash, basswood, beech, birch, cherry, crabapple, cranberry, elm, hawthorn, hickory, hop hornbeam, maple, oak, poplar, willow, witch hazel, and other woody plants [Rings et al, 1992; Handfield, 1999]
final-instar larvae are predatory on other caterpillars and pupae [David Wagner et al]
Life Cycle
one generation per year; overwinters as an adult
Eggs
See Also
Nameless Pinion (
Lithophane innominata) forewing is darker with more prominent markings and dark diffuse subreniform spot
light form of
Dimorphic Pinion (
L. patefacta) forewing lacks noticeable subterminal line, and has less prominent markings except for distinct and sharp-edged black subreniform spot
(
compare images of all 3 species at CBIF)
light form of Hemina Pinion (L. hemina) lacks noticeable subterminal line, and has sharp-edged black subreniform spot
(compare photos of these and other species by Jim Vargo at
MPG, and at
U. of Alberta using CBIF images)
Print References
Handfield, Louis. 1999. Les Guides des Papillons du Quebec. Broquet. 662 pp.
Rings, Roy W. et al. 1992. The Owlet Moths of Ohio.
Internet References
distribution in Canada list of provinces (U. of Alberta, using CBIF data)
