Catocala epione
Family Erebidae, subfamily Erebinae
Photograph copyright by Tony Leukering
26 June 2012
Woods Road "square-doughnut field" (nw. corner of county)
CMMP block B07
The lovely beast that is the subject of this post, one of the larger underwing species, was found by Mike Crewe as we (along with Megan Crewe) were wandering in the northwest corner of the county today. As can be seen from the distribution map on the MPG site (that is, if you check on the map sometime before it gets this record added to it), you can see that the species was previously unknown from most of New Jersey.
The underwings are a favorite among moth-ers (I guess that we need that hyphen in there!) and collectors, probably due to many species' striking hindwing color and pattern and their exquisite forewing patterns. Ebione Underwing may have amongst the most exquisite of the latter. As noted in the Io Moth essay, those underwings with bright hindwing patterns probably use them as a startle feature. This underwing, however, does not have a hindwing with yellow, orange, or red and I know not whether they are a startling species. In the above picture, we can just see a bit of bright white border on what might be a black hindwing. Fortunately, before the beastie arranged itself in this posture on the trunk of a Pitch Pine, it was perched in a more-revealing pose (below), one that allows us to see that, indeed, the hindwings are mostly black.
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