Moths of North Carolina
Scientific Name:
Common Name:
Family (Alpha):
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View PDFNoctuidae Members:
Megalographa Members:
73 NC Records

Megalographa biloba (Stephens, 1830) - Bilobed Looper


Taxonomy
Superfamily: Noctuoidea Family: NoctuidaeSubfamily: PlusiinaeTribe: PlusiiniP3 Number: 931209.00 MONA Number: 8907.00
Comments: The sole member of this genus in North America north of Mexico (Lafontaine and Poole, 1991; Lafontaine and Schmidt, 2010)
Identification
Field Guide Descriptions: Covell (1984; as Autographa biloba); Beadle and Leckie (2012)Online Photographs: MPG, BugGuide, iNaturalist, Google, BAMONA, GBIF, BOLD                                                                                 
Adult Markings: A medium-sized, brown Looper, shaded with red or yellow and possessing a distinctive bilobed silver stigma. The transverse lines are also silver, as is the dorsal outline of the reniform, which forms a conspicuous c-shaped mark.
Wingspan: 35-40 mm (Forbes, 1954)
Adult Structural Features: Male and female reproductive structures are described and illustrated by Lafontaine and Poole (1991) and are unique within our fauna.
Adult ID Requirements: Identifiable from good quality photos of unworn specimens.
Immatures and Development: Larvae are very distinctive -- green with white lines and dashes and covered with a pelage of fairly long, white hair-like spines (Lafontaine and Poole, 1991)
Larvae ID Requirements: Identifiable from good quality photos, especially where associated with known host plants.
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)

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