Ottawa (Dunrobin), ON Canada

28 April 2003   8:14PM EST  (top left)
30 April 2003   7:47PM EST  (top right)
20 April 2003   7:04PM EST  (bottom left)
14 April 2003   7:17PM EST  (bottom right)

Psaphida rolandi is the most subtly marked of the five species of Psaphidini that occur at my location.  The illustrations in Covell (1983) and Handfield (1999) show it as an overall dark gray moth with few distinctive markings.  The specimens I have seen have usually had at least a partial pale outline around the reniform and orbicular spots.  The claviform spot is also sometimes faintly present, or partially outlined in a pale gray/tan, although it usually does not show very much.  The postmedial line may be virtually invisible, as in the bottom right photo, but a subterminal line is sometimes partially indicated by whitish markings.  The ground color of the forewing is fairly dark gray, sometimes tinged with brown.  The hindwing is lighter gray-brown, shading darker towards the outer margin.  The top of the thorax often looks as though it has a shiny protruding knob, somewhat paler and brownish in color.

The larvae of Psaphida rolandi feed on oak.  Handfield (1999) has suggested an adult flight season from after mid-April to about mid-May for my general area.

My thanks to Dr. J. Donald Lafontaine of Agriculture Canada for identifying this species for me in April 2003, at which time he told me that the specimen I had brought him (bottom right photo) might be the first record of this species for eastern Ontario.  That specimen, and several others collected, have been given to the Canadian National Collection in Ottawa, together with specimens of the other four Psaphidini species that occur at my location.  Subsequently, I discovered several photographs of Psaphida rolandi among my previously unidentified moths from 2002.

I have photographed this species in 2002 on 15 and 16 April; in 2003, on 14, 19, 20, 27, 28 and 30 April, and on 9 and 10 May.