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Ottawa (Dunrobin), ON Canada
20 July 2004 12:28AM EST (top left)
27 July 2004 12:56AM EST (top right)
27 July 2003 12:26AM EST (bottom left)
23 July 2003 12:38AM EST (bottom right)
Panthea pallescens is one of two species of Panthea recorded in the Ottawa area (J.D. Lafontaine, pers. comm., 2001). From Handfield (1999) and other sources, Panthea pallescens appears to be very
similar to another species, Panthea furcilla (not illustrated on this web site; illustrated in Covell (1984)), which has a more southerly range. It is likely that at least one of the moths illustrated here (top right) is a
subspecies of Panthea pallescens, P. pallescens centralis, but I have not been able to confirm whether this is the subspecies, nor do I have information on the distinctions between P. pallescens and P. furcilla.
The ground color of the forewing of Panthea pallescens is whitish, usually quite pale, but with varying degrees of gray-brown shading. The lines are boldly marked in black. The antemedial and medial lines are nearly straight, but the postmedial line bends sharply inward halfway down the wing, and briefly touches the medial line, then separates again before reaching the inner margin. The subterminal line has deep jagged scallops, and is usually heavily shaded with gray-brown along its inner edge, especially in the costal half of the wing. The hindwing is pale grayish
white. The subspecies P. pallescens centralis, is apparently quite similar, but the ground color of the forewing is grayish rather than white, and from the illustrations in Handfield (1999), the moth is somewhat darker overall
as in the top right photo above.
According to Handfield (1999), the host plant for Panthea pallescens is pine, especially white pine and jackpine. He indicates two generations per year for my general area, with adult flight seasons from the
end of May nearly to the end of June, and from the end of June into early August.
My records to date for Panthea pallescens (each date
representing "the night of") are in the table below: |
