Lasionycta poca (Barnes & Benjamin), 2009

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 : 40-41

Lasionycta poca (Barnes & Benjamin) , stat. rev.

Figs 35, 36, 151, 207. Map 8

Anarta poca Barnes & Benjamin, 1923: 73 .

Lasiestra leucocycla poca ; McDunnough 1938: 72.

Lasiestra poca ; Franclemont and Todd 1983: 149.

Lasionycta leucocycla poca ; Lafontaine et al. 1986: 257.

Type material. Anarta poca : holotype ♁ [ USNM, examined]. Type locality: Pocahontas, Alberta.

Diagnosis. Lasionycta poca is a montane species occurring in northwestern North America. It has has a dark-gray forewing with crisp markings and a pale putty-white hindwing with dark basal suffusion, a black postmedial line, and a black marginal band. The underside is distinctive with crisp black discal spots and lines against the white ground. It resembles a white-hindwinged L. leucocycla but differs in having large eyes and a narrowly bipectinate male antenna that is 2.5–3.0× as wide as the shaft. The ventral hindwing of L. poca has a large discal spot and a prominent sinuous postmedial line that parallels the narrow marginal band; L. leucocycla lacks these characters. The male vesica of L. poca usually has two or three basal cornuti (range 0–3), whereas those of most L. leucocycla have none or one (range 0–2). Th e female genitalia are indistinguishable.

Lasionycta poca is similar to L. coloradensis , L. frigida , L. illima , and L. sasquatch , all with similar male antennae. Differences between L. poca and these species are given in their diagnosis sections.

The CO1 sequence of L. poca differs from L. leucocycla by at least 2.2 % and from L. coloradensis by 0.85 %. It is identical to that of L. sasquatch .

Distribution and biology. Lasionycta poca occurs throughout the Rocky Mountains of Alberta, westward to the Coast Range in western British Columbia and southward in the Cascades to Okanogan County, Washington. A dark specimen from southern Yukon examined from a photograph is tentatively assigned to L. poca rather than L. illima but could not be examined to assess eye size. Lasionycta poca is predominantly alpine and is most common near timberline, but occasional specimens are collected in nearby forest. It is mainly nocturnal and is usually collected at light. Adults are found from mid-June through August.

Remarks. Lafontaine et al. (1986) treated L. poca as a subspecies of L. leucocycla . Evidence that L. poca and L. leucocycla are distinct species includes the structural and genetic differences described above and the presence of sympatry in western Alberta without intergradation.