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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Butterflies and Moths (Lepidoptera) » Owlet Moths and kin (Noctuoidea) » Erebidae » Tiger and Lichen Moths (Arctiinae) » Tiger Moths (Arctiini) » Pericopina » Gnophaela » Police Car Moth - Hodges#8037 (Gnophaela vermiculata)

Species Gnophaela vermiculata - Police Car Moth - Hodges#8037

Classification · Hodges Number · Other Common Names · Synonyms and other taxonomic changes · Numbers · Size · Identification · Range · Habitat · Season · Food · Life Cycle · See Also · Print References · Internet References · Works Cited
Caterpillar of.....? - Gnophaela vermiculata Gnophaela vermiculata maybe - Gnophaela vermiculata Police Car Moth - Gnophaela vermiculata Police Car Moth - Gnophaela vermiculata Tiger moth ... Gnophaela sp. - Gnophaela vermiculata - male Moth - Gnophaela vermiculata Moth - Gnophaela vermiculata Gnophaela vermiculata
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 Arctiinae (Tiger and Lichen Moths)
Tribe Arctiini (Tiger Moths)
Subtribe Pericopina
Genus Gnophaela
Species vermiculata (Police Car Moth - Hodges#8037)
Hodges Number
8037
Other Common Names
Gnophaela vermiculata
Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Gnophaela vermiculata (Grote, 1863)
* phylogenetic sequence #930356
Numbers
Gnophaela includes five species in America north of Mexico. (1), (2)
Size
Wingspan about 54 mm, based on photo by Jeff Miller at USGS
Identification
Adult: all black except for large white spots on wings [similar to other species in the genus; see Genus page for links to comparison photos of all five North American species]

Larva: yellow with uniformly-distributed patches of black hairs that partly obscure the yellow ground color
Range
southern British Columbia south to Oregon, northeastern Nevada, Utah, Colorado, and northern New Mexico(2)
Habitat
Typically foothills, mountain ranges, mid-elevations
Season
Adults fly during the day in late summer, July-August (Alberta)
Food
Larvae feed on bluebells [lungwort] (Mertensia spp.), puccoon (Lithospermum spp.) and stickseed (Hackelia spp.).
Adults feed during the day on nectar of herbaceous flowers such as thistle (Cirsium spp.) and goldenrod (Solidago spp.)
Life Cycle
overwinters as a larva
See Also
adults of other species in the genus have similar color and pattern [see Genus page for links to images and distribution maps of the four other North American species]
Print References
Powell, J. A. & P. A. Opler, Moths of Western North America.(2)
Miller, #1, p. 29 (3)
Internet References
Moth Photographers Group
pinned adult image by Paul Opler, plus US distribution map (butterfliesandmoths.org)
Macromoths of Northwest Forests and Woodlands pinned adult image plus description, distribution, foodplant (Jeff Miller, USGS)
pinned adult image plus common name references, habitat, flight season, description, foodplants, distribution (Strickland Entomological Museum, U. of Alberta)
distribution in Canada list of provinces (U. of Alberta, using CBIF data)
Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD)
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.Moths of Western North America
Powell and Opler. 2009. UC Press.
3.Macromoths of Northwest Forests and Woodlands
Jeffrey Miller, Paul Hammond. 2000. USDA Forest Service, FHTET-98-18.
Contributed by Cotinis on 4 November, 2004 - 5:24am
Additional contributions by Mike Boone, Robin McLeod, anitagould, Maury Heiman, Ron M., Randy Hardy
Last updated 19 June, 2013 - 12:58am

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