Moths of North Dakota

Noctuidae: Noctuinae: Agrotini


Euxoa messoria (Harris 1841)

Common name: Dark-sided cutworm/ Reaper dart.

Hodges #: 10705.

Identification: Rfw 14.9 mm, noctuoid pattern in black on luteous gray ground; orbicular round, median shade present; hws very light fuscous with darker margins and white fringe, overall darker in &&.  Male antennae moderately bifasciculate; vesica elongate and shallowly curved.  Note generic characters of Euxoa.

Similar species: 10704, 10743, 10753, 10776, 10780, 10793, 10845, 10849, 10906, 10923,
and 10927.1.

Distribution: coast to coast in temperate United States and southern Canada, in the west ranging northward to Yukon and southward to southern California.

Hosts: Larvae have been reported from more than 40 forbs, vegetables, and woody plants.  In the northeast, it is traditionally associated with truck crops, in the northern Great Plains the Dark-sided cutworm has been of economic importance in corn, alfalfa, and sugar beets.

Note: The elongate vesica, characteristic of the subgenus Longivesica, places this species among a few moths mostly quite dissimilar in external appearance.

 

CA  Los Angeles Co., San Gabriel Mts,
S. Fork campground.  4600', 2- X- 1965.

 

  
 

 

 


Last updated: 02/06/07

Dr. Gerald M. Fauske
collection manager, NDSIRC
research specialist, NDSU
216 Hultz Hall
Fargo, ND 58105
E-Mail: Gerald.Fauske@ndsu.nodak.edu

 
Published by the Department of Entomology 


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