Ottawa (Dunrobin), ON Canada

23 May 2004   9:04PM EST  (left)
23 May 2004   (date of moth capture)  (right)
Both photos are of the same specimen.

My thanks to Dr. Jean-François Landry of Agriculture Canada for identifying the specimen illustrated above, which was collected and given to the Canadian National Collection in Ottawa.  For further information on Loxostege cereralis, I have 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).

The forewing of Loxostege cereralis is mostly light grayish brown and gray, with yellowish cream markings and many black streaks.  There is a pale streak in the basal area just above a black dash.  The medial area has a patch of yellowish cream with black streaks at inner and outer ends.  The dark postmedial line is interrupted and somewhat difficult to trace all the way across the wing; it includes a series of inward-pointing dark wedges in its center.  There is a diffuse shade 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 above the anal angle, tapering gradually towards the apex.  The fringe is very dark brownish gray.  The hindwing is brownish gray, with a faint, vague postmedial shade and a fine yellowish shade just inside the dark terminal line.  The fringe of the hindwing is white.  Munroe (1976) indicates a forewing length of 13 to 16 mm for this species. 

According to Munroe (1976), the larva of Loxostege cereralis, also known as the Alfalfa Webworm, is a significant agricultural pest, feeding  on a wide variety of crops.  He notes that Loxostege cereralis is a migratory species that invades northeastern North America only in favorable years, but sometimes breeds "in economic numbers."

My only record to date for Loxostege cereralis (each date representing "the night of") is in the table below: