Ottawa (Dunrobin), ON Canada

3 June 2003   8:43PM EDT  (top)
4 June 2003   8:29PM EDT  (bottom)

The forewing of Spargaloma sexpunctata is a soft violet gray to taupe color in fresh specimens, but may have a slight yellowish tone in worn specimens.  Antemedial and postmedial lines are evident as brown scallops.  The median is divided approximately in half by a brown shade extending outward from the middle, darkest at the inside edge but fading out before it reaches the pm line.  The orbicular spot is marked by a small black dot; the reniform spot is sometimes evidenced by a blackish line in the brown-shaded part of the median.  The subterminal line is whitish near the costa, and preceded by a wedge of dark brown, below which there are three triangular black spots along the inside edge of the st line.  The dashes of the terminal line look like neat dark gray stitches along the outer margin.  The hindwing is similar in color though sometimes slightly paler than the forewing, and has muted lines and shades continuing the pattern of the forewing from the inner margin across the hindwing.  In faded and worn specimens, much of the color and pattern are lost, but vestiges of the dark brown wedge and black spots along the st line near the costa are usually clear enough for identification.

The larvae of Spargaloma sexpunctata feed on dogbane (Covell, 1983).  Handfield (1999) indicates an adult flight season for my general area from the later part of May to late July.  

I have recorded this species in 2000, on 28 June, and on 23 July; in 2001, on 23 May, on 23 June, and on 4 July; in 2002, on 9 June, on 15 and 21 July, and on 7 August; in 2003, on 3, 4, 11, 16 and 17 June, and on 8, 18, 22 and 30 July; in 2004, on 25 May.