Leucania comma in North America (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae)

• Published in: The Canadian Entomologist
• Main Author: Ferguson, Douglas C.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1963
• Subjects: Insect Science; Molecular Biology; Physiology; Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics; Structural Biology; Newfoundland
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.4039/ent95105-1; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0008347X00076884

On a collecting trip to the Codroy Valley region of southwestern Newfoundland in 1959, the author obtained specimens of a Leucania recognized at the time as an unfamiliar species. Subsequent investigation soon established that it was Leucania comma L., a Palaearctic species not previously known from North America. In late June and early July of 1959, this was the commonest of three species of Leucania present, and actually one of the commonest Noctuids that came to the lanterns. On a recent trip to the same area, from late July until mid-August, 1962, comma was again encountered, but most specimens were at that time very worn. In 1954 the author spent three weeks on the Avalon Peninsula, but comma was not found on that occasion. It was not listed by Krogerus in his paper of 1954, although he recorded as quite common in cultivated areas of western Newfoundland the superficially similar L. comoides Gn., a species the present writer has not seen from there.