Ledaea perditalis
Encyclopedia
The Buttonbush Owlet is a moth
of the Noctuidae
family. It is found from the Great Lakes
States, Quebec
and northern New England
, south to Florida
and Texas
.
The wingspan
is 23-26 mm. Adults are on wing from April to August in the south and from May to August in the north. There are one to three generations per year.
The larvae feed on Cephalanthus
species and Scirpus cyperinus
.
Moth
A moth is an insect closely related to the butterfly, both being of the order Lepidoptera. Moths form the majority of this order; there are thought to be 150,000 to 250,000 different species of moth , with thousands of species yet to be described...
of the Noctuidae
Noctuidae
The Noctuidae or owlet moths are a family of robustly-built moths that includes more than 35,000 known species out of possibly 100,000 total, in more than 4,200 genera. They constitute the largest family in the Lepidoptera....
family. It is found from the Great Lakes
Great Lakes
The Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in northeastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface, coming in second by volume...
States, Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
and northern New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
, south to Florida
Florida
Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...
and Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
.
The wingspan
Wingspan
The wingspan of an airplane or a bird, is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777 has a wingspan of about ; and a Wandering Albatross caught in 1965 had a wingspan of , the official record for a living bird.The term wingspan, more technically extent, is...
is 23-26 mm. Adults are on wing from April to August in the south and from May to August in the north. There are one to three generations per year.
The larvae feed on Cephalanthus
Cephalanthus
Cephalanthus is a genus of flowering plants in the madder family, Rubiaceae. Different authorities accept between six and 15 species, which are commonly known as Buttonbushes. Cephalanthus occidentalis is native to the southeastern United States. The others occur in tropical regions of the...
species and Scirpus cyperinus
Scirpus cyperinus
Scirpus cyperinus, commonly known as woolgrass, is a herbaceous emergent that is native to the eastern United States and eastern Canada....
.