''Raphia frater'', the brother moth or simply the brother, is a

moth Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of w ...

of the family

Noctuidae The Noctuidae, commonly known as owlet moths, cutworms or armyworms, are a family of moths. They are considered the most controversial family in the superfamily Noctuoidea because many of the clades are constantly changing, along with the other f ...

. It is found from

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

west, across the forested regions of

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

, south to

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

in the east. The southern limits in the west are uncertain due to confusion with several closely related species or forms. Raphia frater

The

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan of ...

is 38–44 mm. Adults are on wing from April or May to August. There is one or two generations per year. The larvae mainly feed on aspen, but have also been recorded from alder, birch, cottonwood, and willow.

Subspecies

*''Raphia frater frater'' (Prairie Provinces, in the east south of the Great Lakes region into Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana; In the West, it occurs south along mid-elevation mountain ranges of the Pacific Northwest into Washington, and southward along the Rocky Mountains. Specimens from high elevations in Colorado and New Mexico) *''Raphia frater abrupta'' Grote, 1864 (Maryland, Oklahoma and Texas) *''Raphia frater cinderella'' Smith, 1903 (central and southern California west of the Sierra Nevada) *''Raphia frater coloradensis'' Putnam-Cramer, 1886 (from British Columbia, south in the mountains to at least Colorado and Utah and northeast to southern Alberta) *''Raphia frater elbea'' Smith, 1908 (from south-eastern Utah and western New Mexico southward through Arizona into northern Mexico) *''Raphia frater piazzi'' Hill, 1927 (central and southern Texas)

References

External links

Images
* Raphiinae (moth) Moths of North America Moths described in 1864 Taxa named by Augustus Radcliffe Grote {{Raphiinae-stub