Fotella fragosa (Grote, 1883)

Mustelin, Tomas, 2006, Taxonomy of southern California Erebidae and Noctuidae (Lepidoptera) with descriptions of twenty one new species, Zootaxa 1278, pp. 1-47 : 18

Fotella fragosa (Grote, 1883)

Fotella olivia Barnes & McDunnough, 1912 , NEW SYNONYM Fotella olivioides Barnes & Benjamin, 1926 , NEW SYNONYM

Based on an examination of the type material (USNM), these three species appear to be conspecific. Two of them, F. olivia Barnes and McDunnough, 1912 and F. olivioides Barnes and Benjamin, 1926 , were described from specimens collected in La Puerta Valley (San Diego County, California) and from nearby Palm Springs (Riverside County, California). They differ from F. fragosa only in the amount of black dusting on the wings. Moreover, typical pale tan specimens of F. fragosa , intermediate dark dusted F. olivia , and extensively black­dusted F. olivioides , as well as various intermediate forms, are regularly collected together, as would be expected for color forms of a single species. This notion is supported by the fact that extensively dark­powdered specimens are all females. I therefore treat F. olivia and F. olivioides as junior synonyms of F. fragosa .