Species Hypena scabra - Green Cloverworm - Hodges#8465

8465

Green Cloverworm

Hypena scabra (Fabricius, 1798)

Plathypena scabra Fabricius, 1798

Phylogenetic sequence # 930588 (1)

scabra - Latin for 'rough' (2)

Lafontaine & Schmidt (2010) listed 29 species of the genus Hypena in America north of Mexico. (1)

Wingspan 25-35 mm; male usually larger than female

Adult: forewing narrow, blackish-brown or grayish, sometimes with yellowish or orangish areas (color and pattern varies considerably); thin black horizontal line midway along inner margin, and pale triangular patch usually present along costa at apex; PM line slightly wavy with small but conspicuous outward bulge near costa; hindwing broad (2x width of forewing) and uniformly medium to dark grayish-brown with darker veins and faint discal spot

Genitalia:

Larva: body light grayish-green with prominent yellowish-white lateral line, fainter subdorsal line, and thin faint whitish band across each abdominal segment; head greenish to brownish

e. N. Amer. / Cuba - Map- MPG

fields, gardens, wood edges, waste places; adults are nocturnal and attracted to light

Adults can be found year-round even in Massachusetts (BG data), where they become active on warm winter days. Adults are common throughout most of the warm months on Block Island, RI.(3)

The larvae feed on leaves of alfalfa, beans, clover, ragweed, raspberries, strawberries.

At least three generations per year.

larva; larva; larva; adult

The former genus Plathypena was included in Hypena by Robert W. Poole in 1989 (1).

Hop Vine Moth - Hypena humuli - is much less common, its forewing lacks a thin dark horizontal line midway along inner margin, and its hindwing is pale brownish-yellow (compare images of both species at CBIF)

Sooty Hypena Moth - Hypena minualis

Hypena californica

Powell, J.A. & P.A. Opler, 2009. Moths of Western North America. University of California Press, p. 255; plate 43, fig. 12. (4)

Moth Photographers Group - MPG (5)

Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD) (6)

live adult images (Larry Line, Maryland)