Noctuidae - Acontiinae

 

Male

Female

 

 

Spragueia dama (Guenée)

Agrophila dama Guenée, 1852, Histoire Naturelle des Insectes. Species General des Lépidoptéres, 6:205.

Agrophila transmutata Walker, 1865, List of the Specimens of Lepidopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum, 33:776.

Agrophila trifariana Walker, 1865, List of the Specimens of Lepidopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum, 33:777.

Spragueia pardalis Grote, 1881, Papilio, 1:50.

Diagnosis: Spragueia dama is a highly sexually dimorphic species. The male forewing has a gray-brown triangle at the base of the wing followed by a cream white blotch between it and the antemedial line. The antemedial line and the subterminal area are orange and connected by a slightly redder orange band between the two areas. The reniform is absent. There is a cream white patch along the costa between the antemedial line and the orange of the outer part of the wing. The fringe is orange except for two gray-brown spots; one near the apex of the wing and another near the inner angle. The hindwing is uniformly dark brown. The thorax is gray-brown except for the patagia. The abdominal segments are ringed with yellow-white.

The female is markely different than the male. The antemedial line and the subterminal areas are broad bands of dark gray-brown. Along the inner margin of the wing are two elongate, triangular areas of orange. The terminal area is orange except for a small gray-brown area near the apex of the wing and a smaller dark area at the end of the inner margin. There are three white blotches along the costa. The dorsal thorax is gray-brown.

Distribution: (Based only on specimens in the USNM). Spragueia dama is distributed in the southern parts of the eastern half of the United States. It ranges from Maryland in the north and southward to Florida. It ranges westward across the southern United States to eastern and central Texas.

Identification Quality: Good

Larva: Unknown

Foodplants: Spragueia dama has the following foodplants listed: Ipomoea batatas (Convolvulaceae) (HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants, British Museum of Natural History, 2009).

Distribution map based on specimens in the USNM

 

Spragueia dama

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