Ottawa (Dunrobin), ON Canada

8 July 2004   12:14AM EST  (male)

My thanks to Mr. Louis Handfield of Mont St-Hilaire, Quebec, and Dr. Jean-François Landry of Agriculture Canada for their collaboration on the identification of this specimen from my photograph.  Although I had successfully placed it in the Galleriinae group, my own resources were inadequate to determine the species.  I have also consulted Forbes, William T.M., The Lepidoptera of New York and Neighboring States, Primitive Forms, Microlepidoptera, Pyraloids, Bombyces (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University, 1923) for additional information.

Aphomia terrenella has a fairly long, narrow, rounded forewing with somewhat obscure markings.  The pale ground color is most evident along the inner margin, but there is considerable dark gray-brown in the subterminal area and in the upper half of the wing.  An elongated spot of dark gray-brown extending from the base into the median is somewhat concealed in the photo above by the fold of the wing.  The evidence of antemedial and postmedial lines, visible above in the lower half of the wing, is not always present, and care should be taken in trying to distinguish this from other similar species of Galleriinae.  The hindwing is light gray.  Forbes (1923) indicates a wingspan of 28 mm for this species.

I have no information on the larval stage of Aphomia terrenella.  According to Forbes (1923), the adult moth flies from the end of June through August.

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