Ottawa (Dunrobin), ON Canada

17 April 2005   (specimen captured on the night of 16 April 2005)  (top left)
21 April 2005   (specimen captured on the night of 18 April 2005)  (top right and bottom)
The photos at top right and bottom illustrate the same specimen.

Lithophane patefacta is one of over 20 species of Lithophane that have been recorded from the Ottawa area (J.D. Lafontaine, pers.comm., 2001).  My thanks to J.T. Troubridge of Agriculture Canada for sharing the specimen at top left for my photographic records, which he collected at my location.  L. patefacta is superficially similar to several other Lithophane species, and my earliest photographs were not of sufficient quality to support a definitive identification.  I was therefore very pleased to have a professional confirmation, which was promptly followed up with the appearance of the species again on the next two nights.

Lithophane patefacta has a pale gray-beige forewing, almost silvery in some lights.  The most distinctive marking is a blackish blotch about halfway down the wing near the inner margin, which sometimes shows a trace of white at the outer end.  Most of the usual lines and spots are indistinct, although it is usually possible to make out the paler orbicular and reniform spots separated by a slight smudge of brown.  The postmedial line is faintly marked by black dots on the veins.  A finely jagged subterminal line may also be evident, sometimes followed by grayish shading in the terminal area at the center of the outer margin and at the anal angle.  The hindwing is grayish with pale fringe.

The larvae of Lithophane patefacta feed on chokecherry, oak and maple, and are also reported to eat other caterpillars (Handfield, 1999).  According to Handfield, this species overwinters as an adult, with flight seasons in my general area from early May to early June, and from early September to mid-November.

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