Ottawa (Dunrobin), ON Canada

28 August 2005   7:35PM EST (top left)
28 August 2005   (date of moth capture)  (top right)
14 September 2005   9:32PM EST  (bottom left)
14 September 2005   9:33PM EST  (bottom right)
The top two photos are of the same specimen, as are the bottom two photos.

Epinotia trigonella, now considered to be equivalent to Epinotia stroemiana (Fabricius, 1781) and to Epinotia similana (Hübner, 1793), is one of about 25 species of Epinotia that have been recorded from the Ottawa area.  My thanks to Dr. Jean-François Landry of Agriculture Canada for identifying the first specimen illustrated above, which was collected and given to the Canadian National Collection in Ottawa.  This specimen has also been included in the All Leps Barcode of Life project of the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario at the University of Guelph.  Some additional information has been gleaned from Internet resources and, under the name Epinotia similana, from Forbes, William T.M., The Lepidoptera of New York and Neighboring States, Primitive Forms, Microlepidoptera, Pyraloids, Bombyces (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University, 1923).

The forewing of Epinotia trigonella is mainly dark brown, mottled with black.  There is a large, somewhat rounded patch of white at about the mid-point of the inner margin.  There is another large rounded patch of white at the apex, in which a yellowish shade is sometimes evident.  When the wings are closed at rest, the dorsal view gives the impression of these two patches forming a single patch crossed by a band of brown on which a brown triangle has been superimposed.  Forbes (1923) indicates a wingspan of 20 mm.

According to Forbes (1923), the larvae of Epinotia trigonella feed on hazel and birch; Internet sources, mainly European, suggest birch species as the principal host plant.  Forbes indicates the adult moth flies in September.

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