Ottawa (Dunrobin), ON Canada

8 June 2004   12:44AM EST

Leucania multilinea, sometimes called the Many-Lined Wainscot, is one of eight species of Leucania recorded from the Ottawa area (J.D. Lafontaine, pers. comm., 2001). I loosely divide Leucania into two groups: streaky ones and non-streaky ones; within either group, it can be difficult to distinguish one species from another on the basis of a photograph alone.  Some, such as Leucania multilinea, are also easily confused with other streaky Hadeninae such as Mythimna oxygala (Hodges 10436).  My thanks to Dr. J. Donald Lafontaine of Agriculture Canada for confirming my identification of the specimen illustrated at left above.

Leucania multilinea has a light yellowish beige forewing with brownish shading between pale veins.  The most prominent feature is the white line along the Cu vein midway down the wing, with a dark dot where the vein branches.  Along the lower edge of this vein there is dark brown shading that bleeds out into the space between veins in the outer part of the wing.  A shade line runs from the outer margin near the apex to the black dot where the Cu vein branches, with a slight outward and downward curve.  There is also usually some darker shading running the length of the lower half of the wing a short distance above the inner margin.  There may also appear to be some slight shading in the outer third of the upper half of the wing near the apex.  The usual lines are not evident, except for the postmedial line, which is indicated by a row of faint grayish to black dots; typically only two or three of these dots are easily discernible.

Covell (1984) points to the three fine gray lines across the collar (front of the thorax) as a key to distinguishing Leucania multilinea from other similar species.  Another clue is the hindwing, which is white, with slight grayish shading along the outer margin towards the apex.  Covell indicates a wingspan of 3.3 to 5.0 cm for this species.

According to Handfield (1999), the larvae of Leucania multilinea have been reported to feed on brome grass, quack grass and orchard grass. For my general area, he indicates two generations per year, with adult flight seasons from late May to mid-July, and from the later part of July into the second half of September.

My records to date for Leucania multilinea (each date representing "the night of", and excluding those for which I am not confident of the identification) are in the table below: