Post by Sebbe on Sept 15, 2024 18:49:13 GMT
The genus Holomelina synonymized with Virbia by Zaspel and Weller (2006).
According to the late Joseph Muller (in correspondence to D.C. Ferguson, USNM in 1974), who collected or reared most known specimens from two places in Hunterdon County, New Jersey ca. 1959-1964, this is/was a distinct diurnal species. Since Muller had more than 3000 sample-nights at one locality from about 1958 into the 1980s with an assortment of blacklights etc., his claim that this moth is diurnal cannot be dismissed lightly. J. D. Lafontaine (pers. communications to Dale Schweitzer 29 February 2008) affirms that this is a valid species as was first determined by Ring Carde in his Ph.D. thesis which was not published. It is smaller than other local species and has the reduced eyes typical of diurnal Noctuoidea. The forewing is broader than H. aurantiaca more like H. ferruginosa or especially H. lamae. The hindwing is usually, but not always (Muller, 1965), dark as far in as the prominent discal spot and is sometimes all black. Overall the moth looks like a miniature H. lamae, a diurnal boreal bog species. Muller claimed the male genitalia are distinctive. At present this is uncertain. Aside from six lines in Muller (1965) as "Eubaphe lamae Freeman ? or undescribed" there is no useful literature on this obscure, but apparently distinctive, species. According to Lafontaine this species was listed as valid in the Hodges (1983) Checklist on the basis of Carde's research. D.F.Schweitzer
No records since the 1960s. The limited known range makes no sense unless possibly this was a taxon of the now obliterated Succasunna Plain and perhaps other grasslands, or perhaps former bluffs communities on the Delaware River, that spread a few dozen kilometers into anthropogenic habitats. This speculation is supported by the facts that it was sympatric with the only non-coastal, and ecologically distinctive, population cluster of Atrytone arogos arogos, and both were using anthropogenic habitats in New Jersey by the 1960s. If H. nigricans still exists in that area it is probably only in small parcels of undeveloped land or under powerlines. If it is rediscovered in its historic range a rank of critically imperiled (G1) would almost certainly be in order.
Not certain, and very little chance this is/was endemic to the three contiguous counties it is known from. Valid records are known only for Hunterdon County, New Jersey, Bucks (Perkasie) and Montgomery Counties, Pennsylvania. In Hunterdon County specimens were collected at Stockton and Stanton (Muller, 1965). Muller often gave the latter locality as Lebanon which was his postal address. This is not a region of endemism and no unusual habitats were involved in New Jersey at the immediate capture sites. However, it must be noted this is also the southern margin of the only known region where the very rare eastern arogos skipper occurs off the coastal plain, as a bluestem feeding ecotype quite different in ecology from any on the coastal plain. Perhaps, as apparently was the bluestem feeding strain of that now seriously imperiled skipper, H. nigricans might have been a taxon of the Succasunna plain or other relict (?morrainal) grasslands of northern New Jersey that expanded southward a bit during the 20th century. Note one stray Arogos Skipper was actually collected by Muller on his property where this moth occurred and that skipper also occurred near the Bucks County locality where H. nigricans was collected about a century earlier. If the 20th century range of bluestesm feeding A. arogos can be used as a predictor of a possible range for this moth, then it should be looked for in the Succasunna plain remnants near Denville, New Jersey and adjacent towns, and then southeast to Staten Island, New York and and in small grassy fields north of Philadelphia. It might also occur in dry habitats in the Tall Grass Prairie region, as does the skipper. This is slim basis upon which to suggest a range, but there is no other useful information. All four documented occurrences are near the northern end of the PIedmont, so the possibility of this moth turning up farther south in this Province cannot be discounted.
The least unlikely places to rediscover it would be those grassland scraps that still do, or recently did, support Atrytone arogos in northern New Jersey or on Staten Island. There is little chance this moth would still occur in Pennsylvania.
According to the late Joseph Muller (in correspondence to D.C. Ferguson, USNM in 1974), who collected or reared most known specimens from two places in Hunterdon County, New Jersey ca. 1959-1964, this is/was a distinct diurnal species. Since Muller had more than 3000 sample-nights at one locality from about 1958 into the 1980s with an assortment of blacklights etc., his claim that this moth is diurnal cannot be dismissed lightly. J. D. Lafontaine (pers. communications to Dale Schweitzer 29 February 2008) affirms that this is a valid species as was first determined by Ring Carde in his Ph.D. thesis which was not published. It is smaller than other local species and has the reduced eyes typical of diurnal Noctuoidea. The forewing is broader than H. aurantiaca more like H. ferruginosa or especially H. lamae. The hindwing is usually, but not always (Muller, 1965), dark as far in as the prominent discal spot and is sometimes all black. Overall the moth looks like a miniature H. lamae, a diurnal boreal bog species. Muller claimed the male genitalia are distinctive. At present this is uncertain. Aside from six lines in Muller (1965) as "Eubaphe lamae Freeman ? or undescribed" there is no useful literature on this obscure, but apparently distinctive, species. According to Lafontaine this species was listed as valid in the Hodges (1983) Checklist on the basis of Carde's research. D.F.Schweitzer
No records since the 1960s. The limited known range makes no sense unless possibly this was a taxon of the now obliterated Succasunna Plain and perhaps other grasslands, or perhaps former bluffs communities on the Delaware River, that spread a few dozen kilometers into anthropogenic habitats. This speculation is supported by the facts that it was sympatric with the only non-coastal, and ecologically distinctive, population cluster of Atrytone arogos arogos, and both were using anthropogenic habitats in New Jersey by the 1960s. If H. nigricans still exists in that area it is probably only in small parcels of undeveloped land or under powerlines. If it is rediscovered in its historic range a rank of critically imperiled (G1) would almost certainly be in order.
Not certain, and very little chance this is/was endemic to the three contiguous counties it is known from. Valid records are known only for Hunterdon County, New Jersey, Bucks (Perkasie) and Montgomery Counties, Pennsylvania. In Hunterdon County specimens were collected at Stockton and Stanton (Muller, 1965). Muller often gave the latter locality as Lebanon which was his postal address. This is not a region of endemism and no unusual habitats were involved in New Jersey at the immediate capture sites. However, it must be noted this is also the southern margin of the only known region where the very rare eastern arogos skipper occurs off the coastal plain, as a bluestem feeding ecotype quite different in ecology from any on the coastal plain. Perhaps, as apparently was the bluestem feeding strain of that now seriously imperiled skipper, H. nigricans might have been a taxon of the Succasunna plain or other relict (?morrainal) grasslands of northern New Jersey that expanded southward a bit during the 20th century. Note one stray Arogos Skipper was actually collected by Muller on his property where this moth occurred and that skipper also occurred near the Bucks County locality where H. nigricans was collected about a century earlier. If the 20th century range of bluestesm feeding A. arogos can be used as a predictor of a possible range for this moth, then it should be looked for in the Succasunna plain remnants near Denville, New Jersey and adjacent towns, and then southeast to Staten Island, New York and and in small grassy fields north of Philadelphia. It might also occur in dry habitats in the Tall Grass Prairie region, as does the skipper. This is slim basis upon which to suggest a range, but there is no other useful information. All four documented occurrences are near the northern end of the PIedmont, so the possibility of this moth turning up farther south in this Province cannot be discounted.
The least unlikely places to rediscover it would be those grassland scraps that still do, or recently did, support Atrytone arogos in northern New Jersey or on Staten Island. There is little chance this moth would still occur in Pennsylvania.
explorer.natureserve.org/Taxon/ELEMENT_GLOBAL.2.112791/Virbia_nigricans