This site has been created by
Bill Oehlke at oehlkew@islandtelecom.com
Comments, suggestions and/or additional information are welcomed by Bill.
TAXONOMY:Superfamily: Noctuoidea |
"Moon River" |
There are three small yellow underwings that fly in Saskatchewan: Catocala blandula, Catocala mira and Catocala praeclara. I believe Catocala manitoba is now treated as a subspecies of C. praeclara, and possibly the nominate subspecies as well as subspecies manitoba both fly in Saskatchewan.
All have a complete hindwing median band.
C. blandula has an antemedial line that is more oblique in its upper half, almost reaching the subreniform spot.
The basal area just below that line is dark brown.
C. mira also has an antemedial line that is more oblique, almost reaching the subrenifrom spot, but the basal area
below that line is not dark as in C. blandula.
In C. praeclara the antemedial line does not extend nearly as far toward the subreniform spot as it does in the other two species, but the basal area is
light as in C. mira. The overall fw grown colour of C. praeclara has a greenish tinge.
The moth depicted above is not a perfect match for praeclara, but that might have more to do with the lighting and photograph than it does with the actual specimen. It does, however, seem a better match for praeclara than it does for the other two species.
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