Ottawa (Dunrobin), ON Canada

8 May 2005   11:32PM EST  (top)
28 April 2005   (moth captured on the night of 26/27 April 2005)  (bottom)

Zale phaeocapna is one of a dozen species of Zale that have been recorded from the Ottawa area (J.D. Lafontaine, pers. comm., 2001).  My thanks to Dr. J. Donald Lafontaine and Mr. James T Troubridge of Agriculture Canada for confirming my identifications of several specimens, including the second specimen illustrated above, which were collected and given to the Canadian National Collection in Ottawa.

The forewing of Zale phaeocapna is usually quite clearly marked, making it easier to recognize most of the characteristic spots and lines.  The ground color of the forewing is light yellowish brown.  The basal area is a warm medium brown in color, followed by a double antemedial line of near-black filled with brown.  A brown band crosses the wing in the center of the pale brown median.  The dark brown reniform spot, sometimes somewhat grayish in tone, outlined in black, may be somewhat harder to distinguish against the dark median band.  The inner edge of the postmedial line is black, heavier near the costa and much finer as it approaches the inner margin.  It is followed by a dark brown patch at the costal edge.  The terminal area is pale yellowish brown, somewhat mottled with brown dashes.  The hindwing tends to be a more grayish light brown, crossed by multiple lines.  On the hindwing, the clearest line marking is the double postmedial line, which is edged with black, heaviest along the lower two-thirds of its outer edge.  The fringe on both wings is gray-brown.

According to Handfield (1999), the larvae of Zale phaeocapna feed on hazel species, of which the beaked hazel, Corylus cornuta, is present at my location. He indicates an adult flight season from early to late May for my general area.

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