Moths of North Carolina
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12 NC Records

Zale lunifera (Hübner, 1818) - Barrens Zale

Taxonomy
Superfamily: Noctuoidea Family: ErebidaeSubfamily: ErebinaeTribe: OphiusiniP3 Number: 931048.00 MONA Number: 8713.00
Comments: One of 39 species in this genus that occur north of Mexico, 23 of which have been recorded in North Carolina. Zale lunifera was recently separated from Z. intenta, a close sibling species, by Schmidt (2010).
Identification
Field Guide Descriptions: Online Photographs: MPG, BugGuide, GBIF, BOLDTechnical Description, Adults: Schmidt (2010)Technical Description, Immature Stages: Wagner et al. (2011)                                                                                 
Adult Markings: Zale lunifera and intenta are most clearly distinguished using DNA analysis (including DNA bar-coding). Other characters that Schmidt used to distinguish the two species are variable, including size, degree of elongation of the wing, prominence of the orbicular, intensity of striation on the forewing, and degree of sinuousity of the antemedian. Genitalic differences -- the last resort for identifying other Zales -- are only slight, especially in the males. Several of these characters, moreover, appear to be more clearly distinct in the Northeast; in North Carolina, specimens that have been bar-coded as intenta appear to be smaller than those bar-coded as lunifera (opposite of what Schmidt found), with the other characters also not consistently different. In the Northeast, intenta is widespread and believed to feed primarily on Cherry, whereas lunifera is confined to sandy pine barrens where it feeds on Scrub Oak (Q. ilicifolia). Those patterns have not, however, been clearly established in the Southeast, including North Carolina. Virtually all of our older records were assigned to lunifera and will take an effort to go back through existing specimens to re-determine their identities. In the meantime, we assume that the majority of records actually refer to intenta, presumably the more common, widespread species. We restrict records for lunifera primarily to specimens that have been confirmed by bar-coding.
Adult ID Requirements: Identifiable only by close inspection of structural features or by DNA analysis.
Distribution in North Carolina
Distribution: Uncertain
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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