Ottawa (Dunrobin), ON Canada

14 June 2004   (date of moth capture)  (left)
6 June 2005   8:33PM EST  (right)

My thanks to Dr. Jean-François Landry of Agriculture Canada for his assistance with identifying my first specimen of Perispasta caeculalis.  I have also relied on Munroe, E., in Dominick, R.B. et al., The Moths of America North of Mexico, Fascicle 13.2A, Pyraloidea Pyralidae (Part) (London: E.W. Classey, 1976) and Forbes, William T.M., The Lepidoptera of New York and Neighboring States, Primitive Forms, Microlepidoptera, Pyraloids, Bombyces (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University, 1923), as well as specimens in the Canadian National Collection in Ottawa.  This species is also described in Covell (1984).

Perispasta caeculalis is very dark gray-brown in color.  The forewing has a strongly curved costa and an indentation in the outer margin.  Dark sinuous antemedial and postmedial lines are generally visible on the forewing; the postmedial line may also be faintly visible on the hindwing.  In the male, there is a pale whitish area in the median where there is a fovea or hollow.  The forewing fringe is white in the indentation of the forewing and blackish at the apex and anal angle; the hindwing fringe is white.

The host plant for Perispasta caeculalis is apparently unknown. Munroe (1976) indicates that the adult flies in June and August.

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