The Scarce Infant Moth really is scarce

I saw this *Leucobrephos brephoides* on March 30, 2006. Even though I look for it each spring, I have never seen it again. When I found it, the marsh it was in was beginning to flood, snow and ice were still on the ground, and the air temperature that day was in the mid-30s to low-40s F. This is a hardy moth.

Leucobrephos brephoides is a rare moth species in the family Geometridae, subfamily Archiearinae. I have seen it only once, back in March 2006. Even though I look for it every year in late March and early April, I have not found it again.

The one and only time I have seen it, there was still snow on the ground, although it was melting. In the marsh where it was resting on some grass, a flood was beginning. And it was chilly, in the mid-30s to low-40s F. For Leucobrephos brephoides, this was a normal day.

I was excited to find this little moth. It was cold and there was still snow on the ground. I’d never really thought of insects being active so early. Since then, I have found that many insect species, beetles, moths, wasps, and midges, are active this early. Even spiders are out. Some insects are feeding on nectar and pollen from early-flowering willows. Others are seeking mates. A few, along with the spiders, are hunting other insects.

Description

The forewing of Leucobrephos brephoides is black and dusted with grey. The postmedial line is black with a white border. The antemedial line is also black but lacks a white border. The hindwing is white with an even black margin and basal black scaling.

Males have pectinate (feathery) antennae, the females have filiform (thread-like) antennae.

*Leucobrephos brephoides* on March 30, 2006

Life history

In the spring, female Leucobrephos brephoides lays 1 to 3 eggs on a leaf scar near the tips of aspen branches. They may lay their eggs thirty or more feet from the ground or just a few feet from the ground. After about 15 days, the eggs hatch. The larvae go through five instars before burrowing into the soil and pupating.

In the spring, the adults emerge from their pupa. Adult Leucobrephos brephoides are day fliers and active even while temperatures are still cold and snow is still on the ground.

**Catkins of quaking aspen (*Populus tremuloides*)**

Habitat and host plants

Leucobrephos brephoides inhabits open mixed broadleaf and coniferous forests. Its primary host plant is quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides), but it also feeds on paper birch (Betula papyrifera) and alder (Alnus incana). Larvae have also been found feeding on willow (Salix spp.) and balsam poplar (Populus balsamifera). All of these species produce catkins in the early spring before their leaves emerge. Catkins may be an important food source Leucobrephos brephoides larvae, which hatch from their eggs before leaf emergence.

Leucobrephos brephoides is found in cool northern forests where its primary host plant, quaking aspen, grows.

What do the adult moths eat?

Gibson and Criddle (1916) made some interesting observations about the food preferences of the adult Leucobrephos brephoides. They found that sugar baits did not interest the moths. Instead, they noted that rotten meat was attractive. The moths also sought moisture and could be found on muddy roadways near aspen woods.

Similar species

A similar species, also active when Leucobrephos brephoides is in flight, is Archiearis infans. Archiearis infans is more common and widespread than Leucobrephos brephoides. It has bright orange underwings. I’ve seen this species one time also, and that was in the spring (April 2021) during the day at a mud puddle. It lays its eggs in the spring, and the larvae feed on the same plants as Leucobrephos brephoides.

Other Leucobrephos species

Leucobrephos is a Holarctic genus with two species: Leucobrephos brephoides in the Nearctic and Leucobrephos middendorfii in the Palearctic. Leucobrephos middendorfii occurs in Siberia, Mongolia, and the Ural Mountains. The species Leucobrephos mongolicum is considered a synonym of Leucobrephos middendorfii, as is Leucobrephos middendorfii ussuriensis. The subspecies Leucobrephos middendorfii nivea is considered valid. Host plants of Leucobrephos middendorfii are from the same genera as those of Leucobrephos brephoides.

Range of Leucobrephos brephoides

**The *Leucobrephos brephoides* range map shows a wide range but few records.**

Next year

Next March and April, I’ll be out looking for Leucobrephos brephoides again. I’ll check the edges of the woods and marsh for moths, as I have in previous years. I’ll also check the aspen and willows for eggs and larvae. I’m also going to set out bait stations, some with sugar to mimic sap and others with spoiled meat. Maybe after twenty years, I will finally see this scarce moth again. Or maybe not. It is possible that since 2006, the climate here has gotten too warm for this cold-loving species.

Sources

Moths and Their Nighttime Floral Visits

*Xestia normanianus*, a dart moth, nectaring on lance-leaved aster (*Symphyotrichum lanceolatum*) at night.

What do moths do at night anyway? Some of them visit flowers for nectar.

Back in August, I was wandering about in the woods at night looking for foxfire fungi. At the head of the trail on my way out, I saw a sunflower plant with something on the flowers. It was a green tree cricket (Oecanthus) eating the stamens in the sunflower florets.

The next night, I went back but this time with my camera, hoping to find more tree crickets. I had my LED headlamp on like the previous night and used it to illuminate the flowers and foliage where I wanted to photograph. I also set the flash of my camera to “on”.

Although I could hear tree crickets in the bushes, I didn’t see any this time. What I did see were lots of moths on sunflowers and asters. Aiming the lamp’s beam at the flowers, I then pointed my camera at the moths and began taking photos. I wasn’t using a tripod, so many were blurry. Some were also overexposed by the bright LED light. But a few turned out.

*Feltia jaculifera* nectaring on a sawtooth sunflower (*Helianthus grosseratus*)

The moth species (Xestia normanianus, Feltia jaculifera, and Nephelodes minians) I found on flowers at night came as no surprise. These and other dart moth species are common visitors to my moth lights. But it was exciting to see them going about their normal activities in a natural setting. I never did find any foxfire this year.

**Moths weren’t the only visitors to flowers at night. I wonder if this crab spider was sleeping or waiting for a moth.**

Greetings from two tiger moths

*Apantesis phalerata* (Harnessed Tiger Moth). The pectinate antennae indicate this is a male. Photographed on June 25, 2022.

In an earlier post, I wrote about Williams’ tiger moth (Apantesis williamsii). In this one, I present two more Apantesis species: Apantesis phalerata (Harnessed Tiger Moth) and Apantesis virgo (Virgin Tiger Moth).

Most Apantesis moths are characterized by dark forewings and numerous, often parallel, crisscrossing white or off-white lines. The patterns are usually distinctive enough to determine species, but not always.

What’s in a name?

The genus name Apantesis is from the Greek word “apantēsis”, translated as “meeting, an encounter/reply” and “to meet face to face“. It describes a custom of meeting visiting dignitaries where citizens would gather to welcome and escort the dignitary or hero in a procession. I’m not sure why this word was used to name the genus.

Harnessed Tiger Moth (Apantesis phalerata)

Harnessed Tiger Moth (Apantesis phalerata) is part of a group of similar species that includes Apantesis nais, Apantesis carlotta, and Apantesis vittata. Characteristics of the forewing pattern overlap in all four species, making accurate determination difficult, if not impossible, from a photograph. Had this moth spread its wings, exposing the underwings, then the choice might have been between Apantesis phalerata and Apantesis carlotta. Or maybe not.

Genital dissection is considered to be the only reliable way to determine these Apantesis species accurately, but I’m not willing to chop up a moth that rarely gets this far north. I’m just going to call my moth Apantesis phalerata because it looks more like identified specimens than it does the other three species. Additionally, the orange thorax appears to be another characteristic in photos of moths identified as Apantesis phalerata, distinct from the other three. Of course, I could be completely wrong.

*Apantesis virgo* (Virgin Tiger Moth) showing the underwings. The pectinate antennae indicate this is a male. Photographed on July 22, 2019.

Virgin Tiger Moth (Apantesis virgo)

Identifying Virgin Tiger Moth (Apantesis virgo) is not as fraught as it is with Apantesis phalerata. Apantesis virgo is a large white, black, and red moth, 20 to 27 mm long. Black in color, the forewing has distinct off-white veins and transverse lines in the postmedial and subterminal areas. The hindwing may be bright pink, red, orange, or occasionally yellow, with an antemedian and outer margin lined with a row of black spots. There is also a patchy marginal band.

Larvae and host plants

Larvae of Apantesis moths are similar in appearance. Black and bristly, Apantesis virgo larvae have orange-brown spiracles; the setae beneath the spiracles may be orange. Brown to black bristles cover the black larvae of the Apantesis phalerata, which frequently have a pale dorsal line. Larvae of both species feed on low-growing herbaceous plants.

Range and distribution

The following two maps from the Moth Photographers Group show the range and distribution of Apantesis virgo and Apantesis phalerata.

Finding Williams’ Tiger Moth in Minnesota

William's tiger moth on a gravel road in northern Minnesota — **The Williams’ Tiger Moth (*Apantesis williamsii*) I found in the SNF. Photographed on July 20, 2018.**

In a previous life, I searched for and documented rare plant species. But I was always curious about everything in nature, so I made it a point to learn as much as I could about all the things in the forests, glades, lakes, and swamps I explored. Sometimes I would make an interesting discovery, like the moth in the above photo.

I find a new moth

A few years back, while on a rare plant survey, I found a tiger moth that I later identified as Apantesis williamsii (Williams’ Tiger Moth). I found the moth in Cook County, Minnesota, in the Superior National Forest (SNF). It was simply lying in the middle of an old logging road just waiting to be found, I guess.

I’d never seen a moth quite like this one. I photographed it (I would have anyway no matter if it was new to me or not) and took some notes about the surrounding area. Then I GPS-ed the location, which is about 20 miles south of the US-Canadian border.

Because blueberry pickers were using the road that day, I carefully moved the moth to a safe spot. Then I got back to that day’s mission, searching for rare plants in the forest and the rare Nabokov’s blue butterfly (Lycaeides idas nabokovi). It might have been in the area as its larval host plant, Vaccinium cespitosum (dwarf bilberry), grew nearby in a prescribed burn. I found plenty of dwarf bilberry that day, but no sign of Nabokov’s blue butterfly. Not even a caterpillar.

Not a common species in Minnesota

Apantesis williamsii is uncommon in Minnesota. It appears that there are only two records before 2018. One record is from Cook County, the same county where I found this one, up in the northeastern corner of the state. The other is from Lake of the Woods County in the Northwest Angle, right on the US-Canadian border, found in 2017.

Since then, additional sightings of Apantesis williamsii have been made. Two other sightings (here and here) were made in Minnesota in 2018, but from northern St. Louis County, about 50 miles west near Ely, and also close to the Boundary Waters and Canada.

***Apantesis williamsii* range map. The distribution of ***Apantesis williamsii***** **is concentrated in the Cordillera.**

Globally secure

This is not a rare species globally, but based on the small number of sightings, it appears to be uncommon in Minnesota. Most records of Apantesis williamsii are from the Cordillera, starting in Saskatchewan, Canada, and then south through Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, California, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico in the western US. It occurs sporadically elsewhere, with scattered reports from Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick in Canada, and in Michigan and Maine in the US.

Habitat preferences

In the main part of its range, Apantesis williamsii can be found in mountain meadows at middle to high elevations. It also occurs in quaking aspen forests and dry coniferous forests with sandy soil. The latter isn’t too different from the site where I found it. This was in a forest of aspen, birch, spruce, and fir with some jack pine and white pine on sandy soil. The weather is also cool in the summer, although climate change may upend that.

What does it it eat?

Larval food plants of Apantesis williamsii are not known, but it may feed on low-growing herbaceous vegetation like other species of Apantesis.