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

Catocala lineella Grote, 1872 - Little Lined Underwing

Taxonomy
Superfamily: Noctuoidea Family: ErebidaeSubfamily: ErebinaeTribe: CatocaliniP3 Number: 930860.00 MONA Number: 8878.10
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. Lineella was included by Barnes and McDunnough (1918) in their Group XX (also adopted by Forbes, 1954), which feed on Oaks. This group originally included amica and jair, with lineella now added as a separate species. At least one undescribed species may eventually be added. Catocala lineella has been treated as a form of amica, but was restored to full species status by Gall (1990), who also considered forms melanotica, aurantiaca, and novangliae of amica as a synonyms of lineella. Gall and Hawks (2010) treated form nerissa as an additional synonym of lineella.
Identification
Field Guide Descriptions: Beadle and Leckie (2012)Online Photographs: MPG, BugGuide, iNaturalist, Google, BAMONA, GBIF, BOLD                                                                                 
Adult Markings: A medium-sized Underwing, with mottled, dark gray forewings and yellow-orange hindwings that lack a median black band. Grote (1872) described lineella as very similar to Catocala amica, but darker and "powdered with glaucous, bluish- or greenish-gray, and black scales". The curvifascia band that is present in some forms of amica -- at least as a well-defined dark arc rather than a diffuse shade -- is absent in lineella (Barnes and McDunnough, 1918; D.F. Schweitzer, pers. comm.). Catocala jair is usually more uniformly dark (in our populations) and has a straighter, less dentate postmedian line (Barnes and Mcdunnough, 1918).
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