Trichordestra legitima Striped Garden Caterpillar Moth

24. Trichordestra legitima (Grote) Striped Garden Caterpillar Moth (adult), Striped Garden Caterpillar (larva)

(Fig. 44, Map 25)

Identification: Forewing length 15–17 mm. Male and female antennae are filiform. Forewing ground color is pale gray suffused with ferruginous between costa and Cu vein. Orbicular spot is white outlined in black. Reniform spot is gray in ventral half, ferruginous dorsally, surrounded by white, and partially outlined in black. A diagnostic character is the black, triangular claviform spot that can be either solid or with a ferruginous center. Hindwing is dirty white, suffused with gray scales, especially along darker margin; discal spot present.

Flight period: August to September.

Collected localities: North Carolina: Haywood Co., Purchase Knob NE of house in field, Purchase Knob NW of house in forest, Purchase Knob on road in meadow. Tennessee: Blount Co., Cades Cove Primitive Baptist Church, Gregory Bald, (8 specimens)

Elevation range: 1800 and 4925–4929 ft. (1501m)

General distribution: Across Canada from Newfoundland and Nova Scotia to British Columbia. In the eastern U.S., this species ranges from Maine to Florida, throughout the Midwest from Ohio to Kansas and Nebraska, south to Texas, and Utah.

Larval hosts: Larva seems to be general feeders on a variety of grasses and vegetables. The normal host plants are probably the slender grasses, including ring muhly (Muhlenbergia torreyi (Kunth) Hitchc. ex Bush) and winter bentgrass (Agrostis hyemalis (Walter) Britton, Sterns & Poggenb.) (Poaceae) (Crumb 1929). Other hosts include asparagus (Asparagus sp., Liliaceae), swamp milkweed (Asclepias incarnata L., Asclepiadaceae), blackberry (Rubus sp., Rosaceae), cabbage, collards (Brassica oleracea L., Brassicaceae), clover (Trifolium sp., Fabaceae), garden pea (Pisum sativum L., Fabaceae), rape, rutabaga, turnip (Brassica napus L., Brassicaceae), prairie willow (Salix humilis Marsh., Salicaceae), goldenrod (Solidago sp., Asteraceae), hairy crabgrass (Digitaria sanguinalis (L.) Scop., Poaceae), tobacco (Nicotiana sp. Solanaceae), and violet (Viola sp., Violaceae) (Crumb 1929). The larva is illustrated in Wagner (2005).

MAP 25. Collecting localities of Trichordestra legitima.