Texas Lep Information

Return to Texas Entomology - Compiled by Mike Quinn

Gnophaela aequinoctialis (Walker, 1854)

Family Arctiidae, Subfamily Arctiinae, Tribe Pericopini

TEXAS: Uvalde Co.
13 N. Concan
04 April 1982
f. leg. J. F. Doyle

Photo & Data courtesy of Texas Lepidoptera Survey

Texas County Records for Gnophaela aequinoctialis

Range: TEXAS: Brewster, Comal, and Uvalde Counties; NM; AZ; south to South America.

USGS lists Blanco County, TX, possibly in error as they don't list adjacent Comal County.

Notes: Apparently rare, it hasn't been seen in Texas in 25 years (pers. comm., Charles Bordelon, March 2007).

First U.S. Record: Per Kendall (1974)

While collecting in Panther Canyon above Landa Park, New Braunfels, Comal County, Texas, W. W. McGuire took one female on 9 April 1972. This specimen is now in the collection of Andre Blanchard of Houston, Texas. [The Blanchard collection has since been distributed among the USNM, AMNH, TLS and other collections.]

There are twenty-six examples of this species represented in the National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C., all from Mexico. Specific data are:

twenty-one, Popocatepetl Park [Puebla], Mexico, 8,000', June;
one, Jalapa [Oaxaca], Mexico;
one, Tehuacan [Puebla], Mexico;
one, Cuernavaca [Morelos], Mexico;
two, Mexico, no other data available.

The nearest of these locations is about 900 air miles from where the [first] U.S. specimen was taken.

Biology: Will come to flowers. Lazy fluttering flight (pers. comm., Charles Bordelon, March 2007).

Type Locality: South America.

Synonym: Dioptis aequinoctialis Walker, 1854.

Etymology:

gnoph, -o (G). Darkness
aequa, -bil, -li (L). Equal, level
noct, -i (L). Night

Similar Species:

Gnophaela vermiculata (Grote, 1864)

Gnophaela latipennis (Boisduval, 1852)

Gnophaela discreta Stretch, 1875

Gnophaela clappiana Holland, 1891

Texas Pericopini:

Dysschema howardi (Hy. Edwards, 1886)
Dysschema leucophaea (Walker, 1854)
Phaloesia saucia Walker, 1854

Biography: Francis Walker (1809 - 1874) - Wikipedia

References:

Borror, D.J. 1960. Dictionary of Word Roots and Combining Forms. National Press Books, Palo Alto. v + 134 pp.

Davis, D.R. 1985. Donation of Blanchard Lepidoptera Collection to the Smithsonian Institution. Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society 39(3): 235-236.

Holland, W.J. 1903. The Moth Book. Doubleday, Page & Co., New York. 479 pp.

Kendall, R.O. 1974. Two moth species (Pericopidae and Notodontidae) new to Texas and the United States. Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society, 28(3): 243-245.

Kendall, R.O. 1987. OBITUARY: André Blanchard (1896-1986). Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society 41(4): 219-237.

Knudson, E. & C. Bordelon. 2003. Pub. 6b.: Checklist of Texas Lepidoptera. Texas Lepidoptera Survey, Houston. (85 color plates).

Knudson, E. & C. Bordelon. 2003. Pub. 8: Checklist of the Texas Hill Country. Texas Lepidoptera Survey, Houston. (treats 1900 species, 10 color plates).

Walker, F. 1854. Lepidoptera Heterocera. In: List of the Specimens of Lepidopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum. Vol. 2. pp. 279-581.

Watson, A. & D. T. Goodger. 1986. Catalogue of the Neotropical Tiger Moths. Occasional papers on Systematic Entomology of the British Museum (Natural History), 1: 1-71.