Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Colocasia propinquilinea (Grote
(1), 1873)
Phylogenetic sequence # 931401
Numbers
Lafontaine & Schmidt (2010) listed two species of the genus
Colocasia in America north of Mexico.
(2)Identification
Adult: forewing gray with obscure black lines; orbicular spot round, whitish, outlined in black; reniform spot oblong, whitish, indistinct, partially outlined in black, and sometimes with black spot in middle; median area fairly uniformly colored, lacking a black bar connecting AM and PM lines (as in C. flavicornis), and showing little or no contrast against remainder of wing; fringe mostly dark, checkered with some pale scales; hindwing uniformly gray except for darker veins and discal dot; fringe mostly white, partly checkered with black or gray; antennae orange or yellow, bipectinate in male, simple in female
Larva: head orange or black; body variably white or reddish-brown or black with conspicuous spreading clusters of white to orange hairs; subdorsal lashes on second thoracic segment, and unpaired dorsal lashes (reddish or black) on first and usually eighth abdominal segments
[adapted from description by David Wagner et al]
Crumb (1956) description of the larvae online.
(4)
Range
Newfoundland to Alberta, south in the east to North Carolina and Arkansas
Habitat
Deciduous and mixed forests; adults are nocturnal and come to light.
Season
The main flight period is March to September.
(5)
Larvae from May to October
Food
Larvae feed mainly on leaves of birch (Betula spp.); other hosts include Basswood (Tilia americana), beech, elm, Hophornbeam (Ostrya virginiana), maple, oak, poplar, walnut, willow.
Life Cycle
One generation per year in the north; two or more in the south.
See Also
Yellowhorn (
Colocasia flavicornis) forewing usually has black bar connecting AM and PM lines, and has dark gray patch in lower half of median area, giving the appearance of a rectangular "shield" when wings are folded together at rest; the dark "shield" contrasts against the paler color of the remainder of the wing, unlike
C. propinquilinea which has a more uniformly-colored forewing (see
live photos of
C. flavicornis by Lynn Scott)
larvae of C. flavicornis and C. propinquilinea are indistinguishable, according to Wagner et al
Internet References
live adult images plus description, similar species, foodplants, flight season (Lynn Scott, Ontario)
pinned adult image plus habitat, flight season, description, life cycle, foodplants, distribution (Strickland Entomological Museum, U. of Alberta)
pinned adult images (James Adams, Dalton State College, Georgia)
adult images and date (Larry Line, Maryland)
foodplants; PDF doc plus flight season and life cycle (Macrolepidoptera of Mont Saint-Hilaire Region, McGill U., Quebec)
distribution in Canada list of provinces (U. of Alberta, using CBIF data)
