Moths of North Carolina

Scientific Name:	Common Name:		Family (Alpha):

View PDF	Erebidae Members:	Gabara Members:	169 NC Records
Gabara pulverosalis (Walker, 1866) - No Common Name

view caption

Taxonomy

Superfamily: Noctuoidea	Family: Erebidae	Subfamily: Scoleocampinae	P3 Number: 930645	MONA Number: 8524.00
Comments: One of seven species in this genus that occurs in North American north of Mexico (Lafontaine and Schmidt, 2010). Three of these species have been recorded in North Carolina (one historic record for G. obscura needs to be confirmed). One undescribed species also appears to exist.
Species Status: This species appears to be the most distinct of our members of this genus based on bar-code analysis. The male genitalic characters are also distinct in this species.

Identification

Field Guide Descriptions:

Online Resources: MPG, BugGuide, iNaturalist, Google, BAMONA, GBIF, BOLD

Adult Markings: The ground color is mouse gray, evenly powdered on a clay-colored base (Forbes, 1954); according to Richards (1942) the ground color is almost always dark sooty gray but some dwarf forms are light to almost white. The fuscous postmedian line and black orbicular and reniform dots are distinct but this species lacks the longitudinal dark streak found in some specimens of the other species. Dark forms of Gabara distema humeralis are also mouse gray to black but smoother in shading than pulverosalis (Forbes, 1954).

Wingspan: 18 to 30 mm., usually 24 to 28 mm (Richards, 1942)

Adult Structural Features: Well characterized by the presence of two costal prongs on the valve, the distal of which is long, curved, and almost reaching end of valve (Richards, 1942). The vesica of the aedeagus usually has one large and one moderate spine but may have two large spines or only one spine (see figure in Richards, 1942).

Structural photos