Moths of North Carolina
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View PDFErebidae Members: Palthis Members: 713 NC Records

Palthis asopialis (Guenée, 1854) - Faint-spotted Palthis

Palthis asopialisPalthis asopialisPalthis asopialisPalthis asopialis
Taxonomy
Superfamily:
Noctuoidea		 Family:
Erebidae		Subfamily:
Herminiinae		P3 Number:
930552		 MONA Number:
8398.00
Identification
Field Guide Descriptions: Covell (1984); Beadle and Leckie (2012)Online Resources: MPG, BugGuide, iNaturalist, Google, BAMONA, GBIF, BOLD                                                                                 
Adult Markings: The ground color is typically a dark, purplish brown (Forbes, 1954). The antemedian is dark brown, edged with pale, and usually angled at the middle. A diffuse, dark median shade runs obliquely across the wing but unlike P. angulalis is not strongly incurved at the inner margin. The postmedian and substerminal are both irregular; the subterminal is strongly oblique in from the costa. Both the orbicular and reniform spots are black and contrasting, with a pale line dividing the reniform. A pale terminal patch is bordered by a black, contrasting subterminal patch. Palthis angulalis is similar but is a paler reddish brown; the median shade is more strongly incurved at the inner margin; the orbicular is obsolete and the reniform is not divided by a pale line; the apical patch is usually reddish brown and the subapical patch is often yellowish but not contrastingly black.
Wingspan: 22 mm (Forbes, 1954)
Adult Structural Features: The palps of both sexes are very long and have a bushy tuft at the apex. In the males, the first two segments are strongly recurved and the palps lie over the back, reaching the abdomen; they are also often contrastingly orange-yellow and tucked in by the surrounding thoracic scales, forming what appears to be a pale, mid-dorsal line. In the females, the palps project forward.
Adult ID Requirements: Identifiable from good quality photos of unworn specimens.
Distribution in North Carolina
Distribution:
County Map: Clicking on a county returns the records for the species in that county.
Palthis asopialisAlamance Alexander Alleghany Anson Ashe Avery Beaufort Bertie Bladen Brunswick Buncombe Burke Cabarrus Caldwell Camden Carteret Caswell Catawba Chatham Cherokee Chowan Clay Cleveland Columbus Craven Cumberland Currituck Dare Davidson Davie Duplin Durham Edgecombe Forsyth Franklin Gaston Gates Graham Granville Greene Guilford Halifax Harnett Haywood Henderson Hertford Hoke Hyde Iredell Jackson Johnston Jones Lee Lenoir Lincoln Macon Madison Martin McDowell Mecklenburg Mitchell Montgomery Moore Nash New%20Hanover Northampton Onslow Orange Pamlico Pasquotank Pender Perquimans Person Pitt Polk Randolph Richmond Robeson Rockingham Rowan Rutherford Sampson Scotland Stanly Stokes Surry Swain Transylvania Tyrrell Union Vance Wake Warren Washington Watauga Wayne Wilkes Wilson Yadkin Yancey
Flight Dates:
 High Mountains (HM) ≥ 4,000 ft.
 Low Mountains (LM) < 4,000 ft.
 Piedmont (Pd)
 Coastal Plain (CP)

Click on graph to enlarge 		Image showing flight dates by month for High Mountains greater than 4,000 feet, Low Mountains, Piedmont, and Coastal Plain: adults.