Subject: Re: Does this moth exist?

From: "Richard L. Brown" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 28 Feb 1995 14:44:11 -0600

>I'm trying to track down a desert moth as to family without any success.
>The mother is mentioned in Edmund C. Jaeger's DESERT WILD FLOWERS (1941):
>"the beautifully patterned, satin-brown, night-flying moth, Thyerion
>ligeae, rests during the daytime in the center of the flower of the Mohave
>aster [Xylorhiza (Machaeranthera) tortifolia]."  I've tried to look up this
>name in a catalog of N.A. Lepidoptera.  The closest I can find is the genus
>Thyreion, with two species listed, rosea and snowi, both Noctuids in the
>Heliothinae group.  I'm wondering if Thyerion ligeae ever existed, or if
>the name has changed completely since 1941.  Any help will be greatly
>appreciated.
>     Thanks.  Lynn Monroe

I'm not sure what catalog was checked, but the "Checklist of the
Lepidoptera of America North of Mexico" (1983) edited by R.W. Hodges et
al., lists ligneae as a species of Schinia (Noctuidae).  Poole (1989), in
Lepidopterorum Catalogus - Noctuidae, lists Thyerion as a synonym of
Schinia.

Richard L. Brown
Mississippi Entomological Museum
Box 9775
Mississippi State, MS 39762-9775
ph: 601-325-2085
FAX: 601-325-8837
email: [email-masked]