User:Haemocyanin11/sandbox

= American Peppered Moths. =

Inspiration:
I saw mamestraconfigurata’s Noctuid moth identifying features tutorial, and I was inspired to make my own tutorial on features of Peppered Moths of America, mainly Biston betularia cognataria. Until more observations are found of Biston betularia contrasta, besides the one observation by jimjohnson , I will not include the other subspecies here.

Wiki - American Peppered Moths.

Overview:
There are currently two subspecies of the Peppered moth in North America - Biston betularia cognataria and Biston betularia contrasta. Like the parent species Biston betularia, the subspecies are Nearctic and the caterpillars display polyphenism.

Etymology:
Biston betularia cognataria. The name Biston comes from the name of a Greek Demigod Biston. Biston was the son of the Greek God of War, Ares, and the daughter of the Greek River God Nestus, Callirrhoe. The name betularia is derived from the Latin word for Birch, betula. Also, cognataria is probably derived from the Latin word cognata, which means related. For those who do not have experience with Romantic Languages, which are all descendent from Latin, the name read when translated is in the opposite order from the original Latin. This means, taken literally, Biston betularia cognataria could stand for Related Birch; Son of War; Son of River.

Similarly, Biston betularia contrasta literally could mean Contrasting Birch; Son of War; Son of River.

Biston betularia cognataria:
This is a male Biston betularia cognataria morpha typica. Males have narrower thoraxes than females, and more bushy antenna. In contrast to other similar looking moth species, the Peppered Moth does not have as many bold latitudinal lines, nor does it have prominent edge scalloped spots. The range of B. b. cognataria is only North America. Unlike the nominate European subspecies B. b. betularia, the American subspecies is darker and has more pronounced antemedial, postmedial, and/or medial lines. This is indicative of a "Cookies-and-Cream swirl". Likewise, this specimen should be the light morph due to the wing maculation (spotting pattern) being discernible on an off-white wing background.

Biston betularia contrasta:
Biston betularia contrasta is a very rare subspecies only found near the Great Salt Lake area.

As stated from Rindge, 1975, page 19, paragraph 9 :"Similar to cognataria, differing mainly as follows: scaling on head, thorax, and abdomen whiter; upper and under surfaces of wings white, with grayish brown, brown and black scales; maculation tending to be reduced."Also, toward the bottom of page 19 :"The moths of this population are poorly represented in collections. Specimens are usually scarce in Utah."In this case, the morphological characteristics take precedent over the location. The contrasta subspecies is also found in Northeastern Nevada, from the map on page 18.

Other important sources:
This book describes the differences between each Superfamily, Family, Subfamily, and Tribe of Lepidoptera found in Canada. Plus, it has colored pictures!