Moths of North Carolina
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2 NC Records

Elaphria fuscimacula (Grote, 1881) - No Common Name

Taxonomy
Superfamily: Noctuoidea Family: NoctuidaeSubfamily: NoctuinaeTribe: ElaphriiniP3 Number: 932225.00 MONA Number: 9675.00
Comments: One of fourteen species in this genus that occur in North America north of Mexico (Lafontaine and Schmidt, 2010), nine of which have been recorded in North Carolina
Identification
Field Guide Descriptions: Online Photographs: MPG, BugGuide, GBIF, BOLDTechnical Description, Adults: Grote (1882); Hampson (1909)                                                                                 
Adult Markings: A medium-small, brownish Noctuid with strongly contrasting, black orbicular and reniform spots. The head, thorax, and the ground color of the forewings is pale tan, variably dusted with reddish or olivaceous. The basal and median areas are usually darker than the antemedian and subterminal areas. The antemedian and postmedian lines are both double and filled with the pale ground color. The antemedian is smoothly excurved but the postmedian is strongly curved around the reniform, becoming more evenly incurved below the cell. The orbicular and reniform are both conspicuously filled with black; the orbicular represented by a circular dot and the reniform by an upright figure-eight. The hindwings are fuscous and unmarked, although there is a fairly wide fringe of paler scales. Elaphria grata is somewhat similar in the course of its lines and shape of its spots but is more uniformly reddish-brown and the spots are not as contrastingly black -- the reniform in particular usually has a tan area between two black spots rather than a solid black figure eight.
Wingspan: 21-24 mm (Grote, 1882); 30 mm (Hampson, 1909)
Adult Structural Features: Reproductive structures have apparently not been described
Adult ID Requirements: Identifiable from good quality photos of unworn specimens.
Immatures and Development: Larvae have apparently not been described but photographs are provided by MPG and BugGuide, both of which show a fairly stout larvae with a somewhat truncated posterior and a pattern of broad, wavy lines. The color differs between the photos however, and the one on BugGuide shows a white dorsal stripe and a pair of contrasting sub-dorsal black spots that are not evident in the photo on MPG.
Distribution in North Carolina
Distribution: Our one record comes from the southern Coastal Plain
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
Habitats and Life History
Habitats: Kons and Borth (2006) list fuscimacula as a habitat generalist. We do not have enough information on this species in North Carolina to draw any conclusions.
Larval Host Plants: Kons (2001) lists fuscimacula as a species that feeds on Bahia Grass (Paspalum notatum), a tropical American species associated with roadsides and disturbed areas in our region (Weakley, 2015) - View
Observation Methods: Comes to lights but we do not have enough information to determine how well
Wikipedia
Status in North Carolina
Natural Heritage Program Status: W3
Natural Heritage Program Ranks: GNR SU
State Protection: Has no legal protection, although permits are required to collect it on state parks and other public lands.
Comments: This is primarily a Floridian, Gulf Coast, and Texan species with the North Carolina record the farthest one to the north. Currently it is not clear whether this species is even resident in this state or just a stray. Much more needs to be known about its distribution in the state, its larval hosts and habitat associations before any conclusions can be made about its conservation status.

 Photo Gallery for Elaphria fuscimacula - No common name

Photos: 2

Recorded by: Gary Maness on 2020-06-06
Guilford Co.
Comment: 		Recorded by: Gary Maness on 2020-06-06
Guilford Co.
Comment: