Ottawa (Dunrobin), ON Canada

15 August 2003   9:12PM EST  (left)
16 August 2005   10:32PM EST  (right)

Anathix ralla, or Dotted Sallow, is one of two species of Anathix known to occur in the Ottawa area (J.D. Lafontaine, pers. comm., 2001), and the one more commonly seen at my location.

The forewing of Anathix ralla is yellow, ranging from a pale shade to a deep orange-yellow.  Basal, antemedial and postmedial lines are often visible as double brownish lines filled with the ground color of the wing, but the brownish tracing may be somewhat intermittent.  The postmedial line is followed by a brownish shade along its outer edge.  A strong brownish shade, somewhat wavy, crosses the median from costa to inner margin.  The orbicular spot is not clearly outlined, but often has a diffuse dark spot at its lower end.  The outline of the reniform spot is somewhat indistinct, but there are usually traces of dark dotting at the lower end and sometimes along its outer edge.  A distinguishing feature for this species (and also for Anathix puta (Hodges 9962)) is a row of black dots in the subterminal area, marking the central part of the subterminal line.  There is often some dark brown shading between this row of dots and the brown fringe.  Covell (1984) indicates a wingspan of 2.6 to 3.5 cm for this species.

Anathix ralla, because of its color and median band, bears a superficial resemblance to Sunira bicolorago (Hodges 9957), but can easily be distinguished by its relatively straight antemedial line, the dark dotting (as opposed to solid filling) in the reniform spot, and its row of conspicuous black dots in the subterminal area.

According to Handfield (1999), the larvae of Anathix ralla are reported to feed on poplar. He indicates an adult flight season from about mid-August to mid September for my general area.

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