Ogdoconta cinereola ( Guenee , 1852)

Metzler, Eric H., Knudson, Edward C., Poole, Robert W., J. Donald Lafontaine, & Pogue, Michael G., 2013, A review of the genus Ogdoconta Butler (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae, Condicinae, Condicini) from North America north of Mexico with descriptions of three new species, ZooKeys 264, pp. 165-191 : 169-170

Ogdoconta cinereola ( Guenee, 1852) Figs 1, 2, 20, 21, 36

Placodes cinereola Guenée, 1852: 316, pl. 15, fig. 1.

Miana atomaria Walker, 1865: 675.

Type material.

Placodes cinereola was based on two syntypes from New York, USA, from the Boisduval and Doubleday collections. A single syntype, labeled "U. S. America, Doubleday, 46-110" with a handwritten label " Placodes cinereola ", now extant in the BMNH from the Doubleday collection, is labeled and hereby designated as Lectotype to ensure the stability of the name. Walker based Miana atomaria on three syntypes from the United States that were in the BMNH. The syntypes could not be located in the BMNH and Hampson (1910) does not list any types in his catalogue.

Diagnosis.

Forewing is light fuscous brown, and the subterminal region (between the postmedial and subterminal lines) is suffused with a pinkish tinge. Medial and basal areas are minutely speckled with white. Antemedial line is an obscure, scalloped white line. Reniform and orbicular spots are obscure but often discernible by fine white outlines. Claviform spot is absent. Postmedial line is a white, almost straight, oblique line with a slight basally directed bend at CU2. Subterminal line is marked primarily as a brown shade terminating the pink suffusion of the subterminal region. Hind wing is suffused with brown. Males and females are similar in appearance, although the female hind wing usually is darker. Forewing length: 9.5-14.5 mm. This appears to be the only species in the genus with a clasper near the junction of the saccular and cucullar regions of the valve.

Distribution and biology.

Ogdoconta cinereola is the only widely distributed and commonly collected species of Ogdoconta in eastern, central, and southwestern North America. It occurs from southern Ontario and Quebec south to southern Florida. At the western edge of its distribution, Ogdoconta cinereola occurs from Manitoba southward through the Great Plains of Nebraska and Iowa, south throughout most of Texas, and westward through southern New Mexico (Eddy County) to southeastern Arizona (Santa Cruz County). The distribution extends south to the state of Coahuila in northern Mexico. Reports of this species from British Columbia are based on a mislabeled specimen; several other species from the same collection, now in the CNC, are also mislabeled as to locality with the same "Vancouver, B.C." label.

The larva of Ogdoconta cinereola was described by Coquillett (1880), Hampson (1910), Crumb (1956), and Wagner et al. (2011). Wagner et al. (2011) provided pictures of the larva. Recorded larval hosts include five plant families; Amaranthaceae , Asteraceae , especially Ambrosia spp. (ragweeds), Fabaceae , Labiatae , and Poaceae ( Ashmead 1886, Crumb 1956, Tietz 1972, Robinson et al. 2002, Heppner 2003, Wagner et al. 2011, Robinson et al. 2012).

Remarks.

This moth is easy to identify because of the pink in the subterminal area of the forewing. The adults are generally common and occur from May to September in the north, to as early as April and as late as October, in Texas and Florida. The saturation of pink in the postmedial area is reduced in specimens from southern Arizona. The pink postmedial area in some individuals is wider. Varying portions of the basal area of some specimens is replaced with pink.