Moths of North Carolina
Scientific Name:
Common Name:
 Family (Alpha):
« »
View PDFErebidae Members:
Catocala Members:
52 NC Records

Catocala grynea (Cramer, [1779]) - Woody Underwing

Taxonomy
Superfamily: Noctuoidea Family: ErebidaeSubfamily: ErebinaeTribe: CatocaliniP3 Number: 930845.00 MONA Number: 8864.00
Comments: One of 103 species in this genus that occur in North America (Lafontaine and Schmidt, 2010, 2015), 67 of which have been recorded in North Carolina. Included by Barnes and McDunnough (1918) in their Group XVII (also adopted by Forbes, 1954), which feed mainly on members of the Rosaceae; 12 other members of this group (as redefined by Kons and Borth, 2015b) also occur in North Carolina.
Identification
Field Guide Descriptions: Covell (1984); Beadle and Leckie (2012)Online Photographs: MPG, BugGuide, iNaturalist, Google, BAMONA, GBIF, BOLDTechnical Description, Adults: Barnes and McDunnough (1918); Forbes (1954); Sargent (1976)                                                                                 
Adult Markings: A medium-sized Underwing moth, with gray-green forewings and yellow and black banded hindwings. The forewings are a uniform gray-green color, with a contrasting streak of reddish-brown running along the inner margin from the subterminal to the antemedian or sometimes extending into the basal area. No basal dash is present but the lower end of the postmedian usually forms a strong black line paralleling and bordering the marginal brown streak. The upper portion of the postmedian, as well as the entire antemedian, is usually fine and black but often broken or obscure. The reniform is usually a diffuse light gray and the subreniform is typically slightly paler than the ground color but obscure. Catocala alabamae and praeclara are similar in having greenish forewings with a strong brownish streak along the lower portion of the postmedian; they also have similarly colored and patterned hindwings. Praeclara, however, usually has a well-marked basal dash and strong antemedian and postmedian lines. Alabamae, like grynea, lacks a basal dash and the antemedian and postmedian are also often fragmentary. The ground color, however, is usually a lighter greenish gray and the brown shading along the inner margin is usually a darker umber brown and confined just to the edge of the lower, longitudinal portion of the postmedian.
Wingspan: 40-50 mm (Sargent, 1976)
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.
Flight Dates:
 High Mountains (HM) ≥ 4,000 ft.
 Low Mountains (LM) < 4,000 ft.
 Piedmont (Pd)
 Coastal Plain (CP)

Click on graph to enlarge