The Aventiinae, Boletobiinae, Eublemminae, Pangraptinae, Phytometrinae, and Scolecocampinae (Lepidoptera: Noctuoidea: Erebidae) of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, U. S. A.
Author
Pogue, Michael G.
text
Zootaxa
2012
3153
1
31
journal article
45706
10.5281/zenodo.279582
155cefd2-7fbd-4482-9f7d-bcc96d645bb7
1175-5326
279582
7.
Dyspyralis nigellus
(Strecker), 1900
(
Figs. 12–13
, Map 8)
Identification.
Forewing length
8.4–9.9 mm
.
Dyspyralis nigellus
is the largest of the
Dyspyralis
from the Park. Forewing is dark gray and variable with worn specimens lacking almost all pattern. There is a small white reniform spot at the distal end of the discal cell. In well-marked specimens there is a faint, black, slightly zig-zag antemedial line; reniform spot is bordered proximally by an indistinct black mark; postmedial line is irregular, black and in fresh specimens bordered white distally; a series of four white spots on costa distal to postmedial line to apex; the black subterminal area contrasts with the dark gray terminal area; and the terminal line is a series of black dashes that can be triangular shaped and contiguous.
Hind
wing is pale gray with no markings. Abdomen has a prominent, dorsal black tuft of scales between the second and third segments.
Flight period.
Late June to mid August.
Collected localities.
North Carolina: Swain Co.: Big Cove Road, site b site c, site p. Tennessee: Cocke Co.: Foothills Parkway East,
1.3 mi
N of 321. (
7 specimens
)
Elevation range.
1801–2120 ft
. (
549–646 m
)
General distribution.
This species is distributed from Nova
Scotia
and Quebec in
Canada
, south through the northeastern states to Maryland and West Virginia, in Great Smoky Mountains National Park (North Carolina and Tennessee), northern
Georgia
, and west to Illinois, Kansas, and east Texas.
Larval hosts.
Unknown.
MAP 8.
Collecting localities of
Dyspyralis nigellus
.