Species Catocala atocala - Hodges#8787.1

8787.1

Catocala atocala Brou, 1985

Specific epithet a playful pun of the generic name.

Wingspan 33-37 mm. (Brou, 1985)

Known from Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida, north along the Mississippi River to southern Illinois, west in Oklahoma and Texas along the Red River and tributaries where Carya myristiciformis grows, and speculated to be in coastal South Carolina where the host is present. (Gall, Peacock & Slotten, 2002)

Holotype male and allotype female: Edgard, St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana, 18 June 1982 (V.A. Brou Jr.).

The known larval host is nutmeg hickory (Carya myristiciformis). In lab rearings larvae took black walnut and butternut but refused shagbark hickory, bitternut hickory and pignut hickory. (Gall, Peacock & Slotten, 2002)

Formerly treated as a form of Strecker's Catocala agrippina. Strecker illustrated the form in the original description (fig.3) of that species.

Brou, V.A., 1985. A new species of Catocala (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) from the Gulf South, USA. Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington 87: 889-892.

Gall, L.F., J.W. Peacock & J.R. Slotten, 2002. Life history and immature stages of Catocala atocala (Noctuidae). Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society 56(1): 1-4.

Moth Photographers Group (1)

Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD) (2)

Bill Oehlke's North American Catocala (3)