Ottawa (Dunrobin), ON Canada

9 July 2003   9:33PM EST  (top left)
12 July 2003   9:25PM EST  (top right)
12 July 2003   11:10PM EST  (bottom left)
10 July 2003 10:21PM EST  (bottom right)

My identification of this species is based on comparison of my photos with specimens in the Canadian National Collection in Ottawa, to which access was kindly arranged by Dr. J. Donald Lafontaine of Agriculture Canada.  Lacking other resources for identification, my identification is therefore tentative pending expert confirmation based on the collected specimen shown above.

Sparganothis niveana is one of about 15 species of Sparganothis known to occur in the Ottawa area.  The forewing is yellow, varying pale to bright in different specimens.  On each forewing, there is a dark-brown semicircular band, beginning and ending at the costa, and the center of the wing between this band and the inner margin is filled with brown.  The central brown color appears to "wear off" in some specimens, leaving just the semi-circular bands with yellow between them, as in the bottom right photo above.  Some specimens also show traces of a brown line in the yellow area just above the inner margin.  I have not measured the forewing, but estimate its length to be less than 10 mm.

I have no information on the larval host plant or life cycle of this species.  

I have photographed this species in 2000, on 11 and 26 July; in 2001, on 31 July; in 2002, on 9, 12 and 20 July, and on 10 August; in 2003, on 27, 29 and 30 June, and on 7, 9, 10, 12, 16, 17, 19, 21, 22, 23, 27 and 28 July.