Ottawa (Dunrobin), ON Canada

21 July 2003   10:19PM EST  (top left)
21 July 2003   9:40PM EST  (top right)
6 June 2003   (date of moth capture)  (bottom left and right)
The top two photos are of the same specimen, as are the bottom two photos.

My initial identification of Loxostege sticticalis was based 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 on specimens in the Canadian National Collection in Ottawa.  For additional information, I have relied on 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 Loxostege sticticalis is mostly shaded in light grayish brown and gray, with yellowish cream markings.  There is a pale streak in the basal area.  The medial area is marked by a well defined patch of yellowish cream.  The dark gray-brown postmedial line is finely toothed, and easily visible against an irregular area of lighter gray in the lower 2/3 of the wing.  There is a wedge of yellowish cream just outside the costal end of the postmedial line.  The yellowish cream subterminal stripe is thickest about 1/3 of the way below the apex, tapering abruptly towards the apex.  The fringe is very dark gray.  The hindwing is brownish gray, with a pale cream postmedial shade and a narrower, more yellowish shade just inside the dark terminal line.  The underside of forewing and hindwing is yellowish cream, with dark brownish lines.  Forbes (1923) indicates a wingspan of 25 mm for this species. 

According to Munroe (1976), the larva of Loxostege sticticalis, also known as the Beet Webworm, is a significant agricultural pest, feeding  on a wide variety of crops, preferring broad-leaved plants to grains and other grasses. He states that the larva webs and eats foliage, "sometimes causing total loss of sugar-beet, alfalfa and vegetable crops, and at times migrating like armyworms from devastated fields."  He indicates the adult moths fly throughout the summer, usually with two or more generations per year.

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