Lasionycta taigata Lafontaine, 1988

Crabo, Lars & Lafontaine, Donald, 2009, A Revision of Lasionycta Aurivillius (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) for North America and notes on Eurasian species, with descriptions of 17 new species, 6 new subspecies, a new genus, and two new species of Tricholita Grote, ZooKeys 30 (30), pp. 1-156 : 13

Lasionycta taigata Lafontaine

Figs 4, 5, 137, 195. Map 1

Lasionycta taigata Lafontaine, 1988: 905 .

Type material. Holotype ♁ [ CNC, examined]. Type locality: L’Anse-au-loup, Labrador , [ Canada].

Diagnosis. Yukon specimens of L. taigata can be distinguished from L. skraelingia by the irregular antemedial line (undulating and gently curved in L. skraelingia ). The genital features distinguishing these species are given under L. skraelingia . Six similar CO1 sequence haplotypes of L. taigata exist ( Fig. 247 ), one of which is identical to that of L. skraelingia .

Distribution and biology. Lasionycta taigata occurs in open peatlands and fens in the taiga zone from Labrador, Churchill, Manitoba, and central Yukon southward to northern Maine, northern Minnesota, and southwestern Alberta. In contrast to L. skraelingia adults are nocturnal and come readily to light, and occur annually. Adults have been collected from late June through July.

Figures

Figure 247. Neighbor-joining CO1 tree of North American Lasionycta, Psammopolia, Tricholita ferrisi and Eurasian Lasionhada proxima and Eriopygodes imbecilla. Incomplete haplotypes with 600–657 base pairs are denoted with (*) and those with 550–599 base pairs with (**). The letter and number code after each species is a unique haplotype identifier followed by the number of samples in parentheses. No data is available for Psammopolia insolens, P. sala, or P. ochracea. The illustrated species show a member of each species-group and are scaled to the same size. The Lasionycta leucocycla species-group is shown in Fig. 248.