Species Xanthotype sospeta - Crocus Geometer Moth - Hodges#6743

6743

Xanthotype sospeta (Drury, 1773)

Phalaena sospeta Drury, 1773

Synonyms

Xanthotype manitobensis Swett (1)

Wingspan 35-48 mm. (2)

The main flight period is May to August.

McGuffin (1981) reported Salix, Cornus and Viburnum. MJ Hatfield reported Aster & Goldenrod.

Eggs; larva; larvae; pupa; adult and pupae

Work done by Jeremy DeWaard shows that DNA barcodes for urticaria and sospeta are identical. The two species appear to be inseparable by COI sequence data, as is the case with many closely related species studied in this paper. Some have suggested that these two are a single species because of the DNA similarity, however, no revision has been published to date reflecting this, and the two are consistently different in the shape of the aedeagus, and the phenologies are different in many areas where the ranges overlap.

Reference: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0018290

(Authors: Jeremy DeWaard; Paul Hebert [at BOLD and chair of iBOL initiative])

It should, however, be noted that the two species are separated by genitalia. See Ridge, 1978 (1).

Drury, 1773. Exotic Insects 2: pl. 22, fig. 3.

Rindge, F.H. 1978. A revision of the moth genus Xanthotype (Lepidoptera, Geometridae). American Museum Novitates 2659. (1)

Powell, J.A. & P.A. Opler, 2009. Moths of Western North America. University of California Press. pl. 29, fig. 11; p. 213. (3)

Moth Photographers Group (4)

E.H. Strickland Entomological Museum

Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD) (5)