Noctuidae - Acontiinae

 

Male

Female

 

 

Tarache tenuicula Morrison

Tarache tenuicula Morrison, 1875, Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., 17:218.

Acontia nuicola Smith, 1900, Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc., 27:67.

Acontia meskei Smith, 1900, Trans. Amer. Ent. Soc., 27:79.

Tarache mescei Hampson, 1910, Catalogue of the Lepidoptera Phalaenae in the British Museum, 10:740.
NOTE - An unjustified emendation of of Acontia meskei Smith 1900.

Graeperia carcharodonta Hampson, 1910, Catalogue of the Lepidoptera Phalaenae in the British Museum, 10:677, text fig. 191.

Diagnosis: The head has a prominent, hemispherical frontal prominence. The upper, rounded portion of the prominence is toothed. The flat, lower margin has a projecting plate. The male forewing is predominately yellow-tan, the yellow-tan stretching from the base of the wing to the postmedial line in the lower half of the wing and further toward the terminal area in the upper half of the wing. The orbicular and reniform are both small, black dots or absent. The lower half of the postmedial line is a wavy, thin black line with a broad brown band on its outer side. A wavy yellow-tan line accents the lower half of the subterminal area. A pair of small, dark brown lines accent the costa in the region of the subterminal line. The hindwing is tan, slightly more heavily suffused with brown along its outer margin. The female is more heavily marked than the male. In particular the antemedial line is usually somewhat present as a vague gray line. There is vague gray-brown patch stretching from the costa along the antemedial line reaching almost to the dark brown rectangle along the inner margin in the postmedial region. The orbicular is a black dot, but the reniform is an enclosed black oval. The hindwing is more heavily suffused than that of the male.  Forewing expanse from base to apex in one selected individual 10 mm.

Distribution: (Based only on specimens in the USNM). Tarache tenuicula is known only from central and western Texas.

Flight period June-September.

Identification Quality: Good

Larva: Unknown

Foodplants: Unknown

Distribution map based on specimens in the USNM

 

Tarache tenuicula

Identifying small brown acontiines

Similar Species

Tarache apela

Tarache sutor

Ponometia sutrix

Ponometia nannodes