Ottawa (Dunrobin), ON Canada

3 July 2005   8:52PM EST  (top left)
10 July 2004   9:00PM EST  (top right)
12 July 2004   9:04PM EST  (bottom left)
28 June 2005   8:55PM EST  (bottom right)

My initial identification of Petrophila canadensis, originally named Parargyractis canadensis, was based on Munroe, E., The Moths of North America North of Mexico, Fascicle 13.1, Pyraloidea Pyralidae (Part) (London: E.W. Classey, 1972-1974).  I have also relied on the Canadian National Collection in Ottawa.

Petrophila canadensis is a fairly small pyralid, with a forewing length of 5.5 to 9 mm.  The forewing is whitish, with bands and lines of grayish brown, brown and orange-brown.  The basal area is brownish.  The whitish area following is crossed by a somewhat diffuse band of gray-brown.  A dark gray-brown line crosses the wing at about the midpoint, followed by a more complex pattern of loops and stripes in white and orange-brown, mostly defined by dark gray-brown lines, and including a somewhat speckled area adjacent to the inner margin just above the anal angle.  The apical corner of the wing is "cut off" by two wedges of white, separated by a band of brown, with wedges and brown band terminating at a point near the anal angle.  Along the outer margin is a yellowish stripe edged with brown.  The inner part of the hindwing is banded in white and dark gray-brown, followed by a whitish area finely speckled with brown.  The area adjacent to the outer margin appears as a black band (described by Munroe as a row of black subterminal spots obliquely fused with the adjacent row of terminal spots).  Contrasting with the black are a subterminal row of metallic blue spots and a terminal row of orange spots, reminiscent of rows of miniscule sequins decorating the wing.

Munroe (1972) offers no information as to host plants or life cycle specific to Petrophila canadensis, but for other closely related species, he notes that the larvae have been reported to live under silk sheets on rock surfaces in rapidly flowing streams, and feed on algae.

My records to date for Petrophila canadensis (each date representing "the night of") are in the table below: