Synonyms and other taxonomic changes
Sutyna privata (Walker, 1857)
Polia privata, Acronycta monstrata, Xylinas sculpta, Agrotis sculpta, Anytus sculptus var. planus, Anytus privata.
Size
About 20 mm long. 40 to 44 mm wingspan
Larva about 40 mm long
Identification
"Peppery ash gray FW has darker gray basal and median areas. All lines and spots are indistinct and edged white. Thick bar in inner median area is conspicuous. ST has black wedges at midpoint and anal angle."
(1)
Head: Speckled gray-white and either dark brown or light brown. Eyes without hair. Palpi slightly projecting.
Antenna: Female antenna simple, male’s serrated.
Thorax: Speckled gray-white and either dark brown or light brown. Thorax square with large shoulders.
Forewings: Speckled gray-white and either dark brown or light brown. A.m. (antemedial) line white scalloped with brown lower border does not reach side edges (costa and outer margin). Claviform spot is a long, wide, dark wedge. Orbicular spot speckled grayish-white with small dark center. Reniform spot grayish-whitish, kidney-shaped, not well defined. P. m. (postmedian) line is a series of tiny white scallops with dark upper border. Line curves to outer margin and ends with two large inverted V-shaped white marks just below black claviform spot at mid wing. Terminal line dark triangles with white top border. Fringe gray-white.
Hindwings: Female has white hindwing with median toothed dark line. Outer margin has long, dark dashes between veins. Fringe whitish, longer on inner margin. Male hindwings the same, but more sooty, except at the base.
Legs: Dark, middle and hind shin (tibiae) have spines. Feet have white rings.
Abdomen: Flattened with a median ridge down top side; gray mixed with brown. Male has tuft or crest at base on the top side.
Range
Canada: coast to coast. U.S.A.: Eastern and Middle States
Habitat
Forest edges, deciduous or mixed.
Food
Blackberry Rubus, Blueberry Vaccinium and others.
Life Cycle
Larva: Head green, body green with a light stripe along breathing holes (spiracles). Stripe has top border dark green. Spiracles white, trimmed in black. Segments dotted with white, two dots off-set on each side of center. A double dark green line, sometimes becoming solid green along top center. A broken darker green double line each side of center. Last instar is brown to yellowish-brown. Photos Cornell Univ. One generation per year.
Remarks
Types:
Holotype as Polia privatus male by Walker, 1857. Locality: Colorado. In the British Museum.
Holotype as Acronycta monstrata by Walker, 1857. Locality: Colorado. In the British Museum.
Holotype/Allotype as Xylina sculpta by Grote, 1874. Locality: Philadelphia (Blake #42) and New York (Mead #119). Museum unknown.
Holotype as Anytus sculptus var. planus by Grote, 1882. Locality: New York. In D. H. Hill Collection, North Carolina State University.
See Also
Similar Species: The Night-wandering Dagger Acronicta noctivaga has a thick black line around well-defined orbicular spot. P.m. line broken. No inverted V-shapes. Fringe is checkered black and white.
Internet References
List of Specimens of Lepidopterous Insects in the Collections of the British Museum, 1857, Pt. 10 to 12, by Walker, pg. 521.
Bulletin of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences, 1874, Vol. 1, pg. 114 by Grote.
The North American Entomologist, 1879-80, Vol. 1 by Grote, pg. 93.
The Canadian Entomologist, 1882, Vol. 14, pp. 183 to 184 by Grote.
Transactions of the Royal Entomological Society of London, 1889, by Butler, pg. 384.
Bulletin of the United States National Museum, 1893, #44: Catalogue Noctuidae Boreal America by Smith, pg. 109.
Catalogue of the Lepidoptera Phalaenae in the British Museum, 1903, Vol. 4 by Hampson.
Psyche 1910, Vol. 17, pp. 206 to 209.
