Ottawa (Dunrobin), ON Canada

27 May 2004   9:19PM EDT  (left)
27 May 2004   9:20PM EDT  (right)
Both photographs are of the same specimen.

My thanks to Dr. J. Donald Lafontaine of Agriculture Canada for confirming my identification of this specimen, which was contributed to the Canadian National Collection in Ottawa.

Hypenodes caducus is one of four species of Hypenodes that have been recorded from the Ottawa area, and the only one I have seen to date at my location.

The forewing of Hypenodes caducus is brown with strongly contrasting markings.  The antemedial line is whitish with large rounded zigzags.  The median is the darkest brown part of the wing, with a darker shade in its outer half.  The postmedial line is blackish, and angles sharply outward to form a box-shape around the black reniform spot.  The pm line is bordered with white along the outside edge, and this white extends outward just below the costa to reach the apex.  This part of the costa has four small white marks, beginning with one at the end of the pm line.  The subterminal line is near-white, with diffuse dark brown shading on either side of it, darkest just inside the st line.  The terminal line is a row of short black dashes.  The hindwing is pale brownish gray.  This is a small noctuid, with wingspan ranging from 1.3 to 1.5 cm (Covell, 1983).

The larval host plant for Hypenodes caducus is unknown.  Handfield (1999) indicates two generations per year in my general area, with adult flight seasons from just before mid-June to mid-July, and through most of August.

I have recorded this species only once to date, in 2004, on 27 May.