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Nemoria darwiniata (Dyar, 1904). [7035]
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Nemoria darwiniata
darwiniata, collection of Carnegie Museum of Natural
History. Specimen collected August, Shoshone Co., Idaho.
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Nemoria darwiniata, collection of Carnegie Museum of Natural
History. Specimen collected 24-VI-1987, Tehama Co., California. Note
reddish brown discal spots on all four wings. |
| Nemoria darwiniata is a particularly
widespread western species, known from Wyoming, Colorado and Utah in the
Rocky Mountains west to the Pacific coast of California. It ranges as
far north as Alberta and British Columbia and is found south to Baja
California and Arizona. The species is relatively large among North
American Nemoria, and its abdominal markings and wing markings
are variable over its geographic range and across the two recognized
subspecies. Notable characters to distinguish the species include a
white to cream colored interantennal fillet with a reddish brown border
along the back edge. Wings are typically a lighter shade of green and
may have a slight blue or turquoise cast with substantial fine white
striation. When present, discal spots on the wings may be prominent or
reduced, and can vary in color from green to red. Ferguson noted
that the forewing usually shows a pink checkered fringe near the apex.
This is apparent in the photo below, which also shows a deeper rose or
crimson patch at the wing apex. On the west
coast, Nemoria darwiniata can be easily confused with Nemoria
glaucomarginaria especially with specimens of darwiniata that
lack discal spots (which are consistently lacking in glaucomarginaria).
Adam Ehmer wrote a valuable paper on host plants and larval
plasticity that can be read on line here:
The host associations and developmental plasticity of Nemoria
darwiniata |
Nemoria darwiniata
forewing (above) with pink checkered fringe
and crimson patch at
apical angle. A dull
discal spot is also visible in this image. Nemoria darwiniata
punctularia at right from southern
California. Note strong discal spots on wings and dark red-purple
shading around abdominal spots.
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