Moth Photographers Group – Leucania insueta

Digital Guide to Moth Identification

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Noctuidae

932948 – 10449 Leucania insueta Guenée, 1852

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Similar Species:

Leucania dia, a former synonym, is separated by DNA barcode and usually lacks a dark basal line below the white medial vein.
Pinned specimens of related species. (Hint: select View by Region on the related species page.)

Synonymy:

insueta Guenée, 1852 (Leucania) - MONA 1983: 10449

ssp. a. insueta Guenée, 1852 (Leucania) - MONA 1983: 10449 TL: New York.

dia of authors; (not Grote, 1879) (Heliophila) misappl.
Note: Leucania dia, formerly treated as a subspecies of insueta by Franclemont & Todd (in Hodges et al. (1984)), was elevated to full species with the name comma of authors; (not Linnaeus, 1761) as a synonym in Anweiler & Schmidt (in Pohl et al. (2010)). Franclemont & Todd also listed L. comma as a valid species along with its synonyms: congener (Hübner, 1803), nigrofasciata Hampson, 1894, rhodocomma Püngeler, 1900, suffusa Tutt, 1888, and turbida (Hübner, 1803) following Ferguson (1963) who first reported comma in NA. The synonyms of comma were inadvertently retained as synonyms of ssp. insueta by Schmidt (in Pohl & Nanz (eds.) (2023)) and are here removed.

adonea (Grote, 1874) (Heliophila)

suffusa Tutt, 1888 (Leucania)

ssp. b. megadia Smith, 1902 (Leucania)

ssp. c. heterodoxa Smith, 1894 (Leucania)

mimica Strecker, 1899 (Leucania)

References

Barcode of Life (BOLD) - Caution: DNA barcode provides evidence of relatedness, not proof of identification, and some BOLD specimens shown may not be sequenced.
Ferguson, D.C., 1963. Leucania comma in North America (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae). The Canadian Entomologist, 95(1): 105-107. (paid access)
Guenée, M.A., 1852. Noctuelites, 1. Histoire Naturelle des Insectes. Species Général des Lépidoptères, 5: 81.
Powell, J. A. & P. A. Opler, 2009. Moths of Western North America, Pl. 56.4m; p. 305. Book Review and ordering
Species Page at BugGuide.Net
Species Page at Mass Moths
Species Page at Pacific Northwest Moths
Species Page at The Noctuidae of North America by Robert W. Poole (Nearctica.com) - archived page access (go to a year prior to 2020 and select a blue circled date from the calendar).

Moth Photographers Group at the Mississippi Entomological Museum at the Mississippi State University

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