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Lucerne Moth

Nomophila nearctica

Description:

AKA Adult called Clover Nomophila. Larva called False Webworm, Celery Stalkworm, American Celery Webworm. They have a wingspan of 24-35 mm. At rest, wings are overlapped and hugged against abdomen, giving a long and narrow profile; forewing elongate, grayish-brown with two side-by-side dark oval spots (the claviform and orbicular spots) near middle of wing, and another dark bilobed spot (the reniform) a little farther out; hindwing much broader than forewing, pale brownish-gray with whitish fringe. The larva have a black head. The abdomen are variably light brown to dark gray with bumpy surface and sparse long hairs with a thin dark dorsal line bordered by a narrow pale strip.

Habitat:

This is the only species in this genus in North America. Their range is all of United States and across southern Canada. It also occurs south to Mexico and the neotropics. They are found in fields, roadsides, weedy waste places. The adults are nocturnal and come to light. The adults fly from April to November; most numerous from July to October. The larvae feed on celery, grasses, Lucerne or Alfalfa (Medicago sativa), smartweed (Polygonum spp.), sweet clover (Melilotus spp.) and various other low herbaceous plants.

Notes:

Found at night on my wall near porch light.

1 Comment

nexttogone
nexttogone 11 years ago

Thank you for the ID, Manval!

nexttogone
Spotted by
nexttogone

Bandera, Texas, USA

Spotted on Oct 26, 2012
Submitted on Oct 26, 2012

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