Moths of North Carolina
Scientific Name:
Common Name:
 Family (Alpha):
« »
View PDFTortricidae Members:
Eucosma Members:
3 NC Records

Eucosma gomonana Kearfott, 1907 - No Common Name


view caption
Taxonomy
Superfamily: Tortricoidea Family: TortricidaeSubfamily: OlethreutinaeTribe: EucosminiP3 Number: 620880.00 MONA Number: 3110.00
Identification
Field Guide Descriptions: Online Photographs: MPG, BugGuide, iNaturalist, Google, BAMONA, GBIF, BOLDTechnical Description, Immature Stages: As of 2022,                                                                                  
Adult Markings: The following description is primarily from that of Wright and Gilligan (2019). The head, palps, thorax, and antennae are gray. The forewing ground color is concolorous with the head and thorax and is overlain with dark brown markings. The dark marks includes a thin and variably expressed basal fascia, and a subbasal and pretornal mark that extend from the inner margin to the discal cell. The pretornal mark is rectangular and more prominent than the subbasal one. There is a thin and variably expressed brown line that extends from the inner margin to the costa and bisects the interfascial area between the subbasal and pretornal marks. A quadrate costal mark is present anterior to the ocelloid region, and there is a dark line on the cubitus from the base to the mid-wing. The ocelloid region is lustrous gray with brown edging and has a few central blackish spots. The costal strigulae are gray and defined by short brown marks and striae, while the termen has a thin whitish line from the tornus to the apex. The fringe is gray brown, and the hindwing is brownish-gray and slightly paler than the forewing interfascial areas.

Wright and Gilligan (2019) note that Eucosma baggetti can be confused with E. gomonana but differs in that the dominant forewing color is pale brown rather than gray and the maculation is much less strongly expressed. In E. baggetti the subbasal mark is barely discernable, the pretornal mark is usually evident but is much smaller, and the prominent quadrate costal mark anterior to the ocelloid region is reduced to a pale dash.
Forewing Length: mean = 5.1 mm (Wright and Gilligan, 2019)
Adult Structural Features: Males have a costal fold. Wright and Gilligan (2019) have illustrations of the male and female genitalia, and the following description is from their work. In males, triangular uncus is weakly developed with the width about four times the height. The uncus usually has a flat spike-like projection emanating from the apex and in one specimen that was examined by the authors the distal extremity was expanded into a spatulate apex with four setae along its distal margin. The socius is long, narrow, and moderately setose and attenuates to a narrowly rounded apex. The phallus is moderately long and stout with a base that is closely surrounded by the anellus. The vesica has 13–18 deciduous cornuti. The valva has a sinuous costal margin, a slender arched neck, a rounded saccular corner, and a band of stiff setae on the medial surface along the distal margin of the basal excavation. The cucullus has strongly developed dorsal and ventral lobes, with the apex and anal angle semicircular and the distal margin straight to weakly convex. The setae on the medial surface of the cucullus are stout and moderately short in a band along the ventral two-thirds of the distal margin and are hairlike otherwise.

In females, the papillae anales are ventrally facing, moderately setose, and microtrichiate. The apophyses posteriores and anteriores are
approximately equal in length, and the sterigma is U-shaped, with a band-like lamella antevaginalis that attenuates toward the posterior margin of the sterigma and laterally bounds a microtrichiate lamella postvaginalis. The posterior margin of sternum 7 is indented to the full length of the sterigma, its medial one-third is connected to the lamella antevaginalis by a strip of sclerotized membrane, and the posterior lobes of sternum 7 are approximate to the sterigma. The scaling of sternum 7 is dense in a band along the posterior margin and moderately sparse elsewhere. The ductus bursae has an irregularly-shaped sclerotized ring near the juncture with the ductus seminalis, and the corpus bursae has two signa, one slightly larger than the other.
Adult ID Requirements: Identifiable only by close inspection of structural features or by DNA analysis.
Distribution in North Carolina
Distribution: The range includes portions of Manitoba, Canada, and much of the eastern US east of the Mississippi River. In the US the range extends from Maine and New Hampshire westward to Indiana and southward to Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. As of 2022, we have only three sites records from the Coastal Plain and eastern Piedmont.
County Map: Clicking on a county returns the records for the species in that county.
Flight Dates:
 High Mountains (HM) ≥ 4,000 ft.
 Low Mountains (LM) < 4,000 ft.
 Piedmont (Pd)
 Coastal Plain (CP)

Click on graph to enlarge
Flight Comments: Wright and Gilligan (2019) reported capture dates from 28 March to 10 June for specimens that they examined. As of 2022, our limited records extend from late-March to mid-April.
Habitats and Life History
Habitats: Our coastal records are from dry habitats, including a site with coastal scrub and dunes and a second with turkey oak and a nearby pocosin.
Larval Host Plants: The host plants are undocumented. - View
Observation Methods: The adults are attracted to lights.
Wikipedia
Status in North Carolina
Natural Heritage Program Status:
Natural Heritage Program Ranks: GNR [S2-S3]
State Protection: Has no legal protection, although permits are required to collect it on state parks and other public lands.
Comments: We currently do not have sufficient information on habitat requirements, host plants, and distribution and abundance to assess the conservation status of this species.