Pacific Northwest Moths

Identification

Adults

Scotogramma harnardi is a seldom-collected powdery grayish yellow medium-sized noctuid moth (FW length 15 mm; n = 1) that flies in eastern Oregon during spring. The forewing scales are yellow and gray, producing a powdery gray-yellow pattern with faint indistinct slightly darker gray lines and spots. The darkest spot is on the anterior mid-wing, due to fused dark filling of the otherwise obsolete reniform spot and the anterior medial line. Other prominent markings are faint transverse lines, most prominently the antemedial line, dark shade medial to the subterminal line, and the terminal line. Some specimens of this species from outside the Pacific Northwest have thin dark outlines of the claviform, orbicular, and reniform spots, but the two known Oregon specimens lack well-defined spots. The fringe is checkered weakly with yellow and slightly darker gray. The hindwing is pale with an ill-defined broad gray marginal band, dark veins, and small discal spot. The hindwing fringe is gray-yellow off-white. The head and thorax match the gray forewing elements. The male antenna is filiform, ciliate ventrally. The eye is covered with fine hairs. 

This species occurs with two similar Scotogramma species, Scotogramma submarina and Scotogramma stretchii. Scotogramma harnardi is the most yellow of these species, significantly lighter colored than S. stretchii, and has less distinct forewing markings than S. submarina. The hindwing of S. submarina is darker gray than that of S. harnardi.

Other populations of Scotogramma harnardi are pink or reddish rather than yellow. This is most likely because they occur in areas with red rocks and soil, although it is possible that they are different species. More specimens of the Pacific Northwest population are needed to determine the status of this population.

Habitat

Scotogramma harnardi has only been found in steppe habitat with rocky outcrops in the Pacific Northwest.

Distribution

Pacific Northwest

This moth has only been encountered twice at Succor Creek State Park in Malheur County, Oregon in the Pacific Northwest.

Global

Scotogramma harnardi is a species of the southern Rocky Mountain and Intermountain regions from southern Montana to Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah.

Life History

Larvae

The early stages are unknown.

Adults

Adults fly during spring. Both occurrences of this moth in the Pacific Northwest are from early May.

Economic Importance

None.

Literature

 BugGuide

Moth Photographers Group