Ottawa (Dunrobin), ON Canada

6 August 2005   (date of moth capture)  (top left)
28 August 2005   10:17PM EST  (top right)
6 August 2005   (date of moth capture)  (bottom left and right)
The photos at top left and bottom left and right are all of the same specimen.

Schinia arcigera is one of five species of Schinia recorded from the Ottawa area (J.D. Lafontaine, pers. comm., 2001), two of which I have photographed at my location. Members of the genus Schinia are often termed the Flower Moths, for their habit of resting, feeding and laying eggs on the flowers of their food plants (Covell, 1984). My thanks to Dr. J. Donald Lafontaine of Agriculture Canada for confirming my identification of the specimen illustrated at top left and bottom right and left above, which was collected and given to the Canadian National Collection in Ottawa.

Schinia arcigera has a brown forewing.  The dark chocolate brown basal area is bounded by a smoothly curved, clear white antemedial line.  The lighter, grayish brown median is crossed by a darker brown shade against which the dark reniform spot is often difficult to see.  The fairly straight white postmedial line is followed by a dark chocolate shade extending nearly to the outer margin.  The thorax is dark reddish brown.  In the female (which I have not photographed), the hindwing is dark brown to black with a pale fringe.  The male, however, has a yellow hindwing with a band of black along the outer margin and a black spot in the yellow area near the center of the wing.  Coverll (1984) indicates a wingspan ranging from 2.2. to 2.5 cm for this species.

According to Handfield (1999), the host plant for Schinia arcigera is reported to be aster species. For my general area, he indicates an adult flight season from near the end of July to near the end of August.

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