Moths of North Carolina
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View PDFNoctuidae Members:
Meropleon Members:
1 NC Records

Meropleon cinnamicolor Ferguson, 1982 - No Common Name

No image for this species.
Taxonomy
Superfamily: Noctuoidea Family: NoctuidaeSubfamily: NoctuinaeTribe: ApameiniP3 Number: 932410 MONA Number: 9425.10
Comments: One of six species in this genus that occur in North America (Lafontaine and Schmidt, 2010), five of which have been recorded in North Carolina.
Identification
Field Guide Descriptions: Online Resources: MPG, BugGuide, iNaturalist, Google, BAMONA, GBIF, BOLDTechnical Description, Adults: Ferguson (1982)                                                                                 
Adult Markings: A medium-large Noctuid. Body and forewings are colored bright reddish-cinnamon, with the wings lacking almost all markings except for a pale streak along the cubital vein and a series of dark points on the veins in the subterminal area (Ferguson, 1982). Hindwings are light brown. Meropleon cosmion is similar in appearance but has a conspicuous, white orbicular (Ferguson, 1982). In the Midwest, M. linae is also very similar but even more unicolorous, lacking the white streak found in cinnamicolor (Metlevski, 2005).
Adult Structural Features: Males have bipectinate. The male genitalia are distinctive, differing from cosmion in the shape of the uncus, saccus, and valves; two large spines and one small one are located in the vesica of the aedeagus (see Ferguson, 1982, for a description and illustrations).
Adult ID Requirements: Identifiable from good quality photos of unworn specimens.
Immatures and Development: Apparently undescribed, but the larvae are likely to be borers in some large species of marsh grass.
Distribution in North Carolina
Distribution: Restricted to the southern half of the Outer Coastal Plain, where it probably occurs only in marshes in the Tidewater zone.
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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Flight Comments: Probably univoltine, with adults flying in the fall.
Habitats and Life History
Habitats: All records, including those from North Carolina, come from coastal marshes.
Larval Host Plants: Larval hosts are unknown, but likely to be some large species of marsh grass. - View
Observation Methods: Comes to blacklights, but to what extent is unknown.
Wikipedia
See also Habitat Account for Coastal Freshwater and Low-Salinity Marshes
Status in North Carolina
Natural Heritage Program Status: SR
Natural Heritage Program Ranks: GU SH
State Protection: Listed as Significantly Rare by the Natural Heritage Program. That designation, however, does not confer any legal protection, although permits are required to collect it on state parks and other public lands.
Comments: This species is known only from specimens collected at the type locality in South Carolina and from a single site in North Carolina (Metlevski, 2005). Although that distribution would seem to merit a high global rank, there are apparently questions about why a species associated with such seemingly common and extensive habitats -- coastal marshlands -- would be so localized; the late flight period and lack of intensive moth sampling from these habitats provide some support for that argument. For the time being, however, this species appears to be one of the rarest moths in North America, although more information is certainly needed on its host plant relationships or any other factor that might be limiting its distribution (e.g., burning of marshes, as suggested by Schweitzer et al., 2011).