Noctuidae - Acontiinae

 

Photographs from a syntype in the British Museum of

Natural History. Courtesy of J.D. Lafontaine

Distribution map based on specimens in the USNM

 

 

Tarache sutor (Hampson)

Graeperia sutor Hampson, 1910, Catalogue of the Lepidoptera Phalaenae in the British Museum, 10:677, pl. 169, fig. 9.

Diagnosis: A frontal process is present and strong consisting of an ovate ring with dorsal and ventral projecting plates. The upper plate is longer and more projecting than the lower plate. The upper plate is square to rectangular and the leading margin is toothed. The male and female are probably sexually dimorphic. However only males are present in the USNM collection. The basal two-thirds of the forewing are yellow-tan. The only basal marking is a brown streak on the costa at the position of the antemedial line. The orbicular is a small, black dot and the reniform is a thin oval. A pair of brown lines arise from the costa arcing around the outer side of the reniform. A rectangular brown blotch arises from the inner margin to the bottom of the reniform. The postmedial line is represented by a series of three black lunules located very basal to the inner margin of the rectangle. The subterminal and terminal areas are yellow-tan. The fringe is primarily gray-brown, but interrupted twice by yellow-brown. The female is unknown to me.  Forewing expanse from base to apex in one selected specimen 10 mm.

Distribution: (Based only on specimens in the USNM). This species was described from Nogales in southern Arizona. It is also known from specimens collected in central Mexico.

Identification Quality: Good

Larva: Unknown

Foodplants: Unknown

Tarache sutor

Identifying small, brown acontiines

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Tarache apela

Tarache tenuicula

Ponometia sutrix

Ponometia nannodes