Moths of North Carolina
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1 NC Records

Crambidia casta (Packard, 1869) - Pearly-winged Lichen Moth

No image for this species.
Taxonomy
Superfamily: Noctuoidea Family: ErebidaeSubfamily: ArctiinaeTribe: LithosiiniP3 Number: 930225.00 MONA Number: 8051.00
Comments: One of eleven named species in this genus that occur in North America north of Mexico (Lafontaine and Schmidt, 2010, 2015), of which six been recorded in North Carolina (several others are still undescribed)
Identification
Field Guide Descriptions: Covell (1984); Beadle and Leckie (2012)Online Photographs: MPG, BugGuide, GBIF, BOLDTechnical Description, Adults: Forbes (1960)Technical Description, Immature Stages: (None)                                                                                 
Adult Markings: Pure white above, including its head, but grayish on the undersides of the wings (except along the costa) and on the legs and underside of the abdomen (Forbes, 1960). Larger than the other white Crambidias, with a wingspan over 30 mm (Forbes, 1960). Crambidia pura is also pure white but is smaller than casta: the wingspan is less than 30 mm, typically 22-25 mm (Forbes, 1960); in North Carolina, the ranges of these two species also appear to be completely separate. Crambidia xanthocarpa is also nearly all white but have their heads more-or-less shaded with yellow. Specimens provide more reliable than photos as a means of identification; worn or otherwise difficult-to-identify males may be identifiable by dissection using illustrations given in Forbes (provided they actually correspond to the named species).
Adult ID Requirements: Identifiable only by close inspection of structural features or by DNA analysis.
Immatures and Development: Descriptions of the larvae are apparently unavailable.
Distribution in North Carolina
Distribution: Probably restricted to 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)

Click on graph to enlarge
Flight Comments: Not enough information to detect any pattern
Habitats and Life History
Habitats: Unknown in North Carolina
Larval Host Plants: Like most Lithosiines, probably feeds on lichens, bark algae, and Cyanobacteria (Covell, 1984; Wagner, 2005). - View
Observation Methods: One recent record comes from sheet sampling with blacklights; like other species of Lichen Moths, casta probably comes well to blacklights but poorly to bait
Wikipedia
Status in North Carolina
Natural Heritage Program Status: [W3]
Natural Heritage Program Ranks: G5 [SH]
State Protection: Has no legal protection, although permits are required to collect it on state parks and other public lands; probably should be designated as Significantly Rare by the Natural Heritage Program
Comments: This species is primarily northern and western and apparently reaches its southeastern limit in North Carolina (records are shown from farther south in MPG but this species has not been recorded in Georgia by James Adams' Moths and Butterflies of Georgia and the Southeastern United States). We have only one historic record for this species in North Carolina and neither its residency status nor its overall distribution and habitat associations are well enough known to estimate its conservation status.