Moths of North Carolina
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Nemoria Members:
6 NC Records

Nemoria rubrifrontaria (Packard, 1873) - Red-fronted Emerald


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Taxonomy
Superfamily: Geometroidea Family: GeometridaeSubfamily: GeometrinaeTribe: NemoriiniP3 Number: 910628.00 MONA Number: 7047.00
Comments: One of 35 species in this genus that occur in North America (Ferguson, 1985), nine of which have been recorded in North Carolina. Ferguson (1969) included rubrifrontaria in his Bistriaria Species Group (VIII), which also includes bifilata, bistriaria, and mimosaria in North Carolina, as well as eight others in the West.
Identification
Field Guide Descriptions: Covell (1984); Beadle and Leckie (2012)Online Photographs: MPG, BugGuide, iNaturalist, Google, BAMONA, GBIF, BOLDTechnical Description, Adults: Forbes (1948); Ferguson (1969, 1985)Technical Description, Immature Stages: Forbes (1948); Ferguson (1985); Wagner et al. (2001)                                                                                 
Adult Markings: A medium-sized, dark green Emerald; no reddish-brown spring form is known. The abdomen has a series of white spots surrounded by red, similar to N. lixaria and bistriaria. Rubrifrontaria lacks the red terminal line found in those species and has a pinkish to white fringe that is only weakly checkered, if at all.
Forewing Length: 12-13.5 mm, males; 12-14 mm, females (Ferguson, 1985)
Adult Structural Features: The fore-tibiae are solid reddish, without the white transverse band found in N. lixaria and bistriaria. Male and female genitalia are distinctive (see Ferguson, 1985, for details and illustrations).
Adult ID Requirements: Identifiable from good quality photos of unworn specimens.
Immatures and Development: Larvae are coarsely pilose and possess prominent wing-like, dorso-lateral projections similar to several other members of this genus. Wagner (2005) recommends that larvae be reared to adulthood in order to identify them to species.
Larvae ID Requirements: Identifiable only through rearing to adulthood.
Distribution in North Carolina
Distribution: Apart from one historic record from the Fall-lne Sandhills, all of our records come from the Mountains
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)

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