The white flower moth (''Schinia bimatris'') 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 ...

found in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

and

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 ...

.''Schinia bimatris''
Report by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada. Retrieved on 2009-10-06. It is designated as

Endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inva ...

under Canada's ''

Species At Risk Act The ''Species at Risk Act'' (SARA) (the ''Act'') is a piece of Canadian federal legislation which became law in Canada on December 12, 2002. It is designed to meet one of Canada's key commitments under the International Convention on Biological D ...

'' and Manitoba's '' Endangered Species and Ecosystems Act''.

Description

The appearance of white flower moth larvae is unknown. The wings,

thorax The thorax or chest is a part of the anatomy of humans, mammals, and other tetrapod animals located between the neck and the abdomen. In insects, crustaceans, and the extinct trilobites, the thorax is one of the three main divisions of the cre ...

, and abdomen of adult moths are completely white, while the head is orange. Adults have a

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 ...

of about 30 mm (1.2 in).

Range

The range of this species includes much of the south-central and south-eastern United States and a

disjunct population In biology, a taxon with a disjunct distribution is one that has two or more groups that are related but considerably separated from each other geographically. The causes are varied and might demonstrate either the expansion or contraction of a s ...

in the Carberry sandhills in Manitoba, Canada.

Ecology

In the United States, the white flower moth has been recorded in coastal

longleaf pine The longleaf pine (''Pinus palustris'') is a pine species native to the Southeastern United States, found along the coastal plain from East Texas to southern Virginia, extending into northern and central Florida. In this area it is also known as ...

woodlands, while in Canada it is restricted to open sand dune areas. The

larva A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. The ...

l food plant(s) has yet to be determined but it has been suggested that the larvae may feed on Nuttall's Evening-primrose ('' Oenothera nuttallii''). The adults are primarily nocturnal but have been observed flying during the day.

Taxonomy

This species was first described by Leon F. Harvey in 1875 as ''Pippona bimatris'' from specimens collected in

Bosque County Bosque County ( ) is a county located on the Edwards Plateau in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, the population was 18,235. Its county seat is Meridian, while Clifton is the largest city and the cultural/financial center of th ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

, by Gustav Belfrage, but was later transferred to ''

Schinia ''Schinia'', commonly called flower moths, is a large genus of moths belonging to the family Noctuidae. The genus has a Holarctic The Holarctic realm is a biogeographic realm that comprises the majority of habitats found throughout the contine ...

.''

References

Schinia Moths of North America Taxa named by Leon F. Harvey Moths described in 1875 {{Heliothinae-stub