Two-striped Cord Grass Moth Guide - New York Natural Heritage Program

The normal form, which represents greater than 95% of the specimens, is easily recognized by anyone with any familiarity with the Noctuidae family of moths. This form has two dark dashes on each forewing.

Characters Most Useful for Identification

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Almost all adults can be identified by the long dark streak near the rear edge of the forewing and similar, but smaller streak more toward the apex. Some hint of such streaks may also occur on the hindwings. Note the lack of any indication of the normal postmedian or subterminal lines on the forewings. Identifications should be verified from a collected specimen.

Best Life Stage for Proper Identification

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Adult only.

Behavior

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This species is usually collected at lights, but some members of this genus are frequently flushed in the daytime from sedges or grasses and this one probably could be as well.

Diet

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The feeding habitats of larvae in this genus are little known, but they apparently use grasses and sedges.

Two-striped Cord Grass Moth Images

click to enlarge

The Best Time to See

The adults occur in early July in Albany County, probably for about two weeks in a given year. Ferguson (1982) gives the range of dates as 5 July to 7 August rangewide, although most of the records these dates are based on are farther north than those in New York. Based on what little is known for related species, the larval stage is probably in late July or August to June. The egg stage is probably about a week long and largely overlaps the adults. The pupal stage is likely to be about two weeks.

Reproducing

Larvae present and active

Eggs present outside adult

Pupae or prepupae present

The time of year you would expect to find Two-striped Cord Grass Moth reproducing (red shading), larvae present and active (blue shading), eggs present outside adult (green shading) and pupae or prepupae present (orange shading) in New York.

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© 2004-2012 New York Natural Heritage Program, a partnership between
the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and
the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry

Please cite this page as:
New York Natural Heritage Program. 2013. Online Conservation Guide for Macrochilo bivittata. Available from: http://acris.nynhp.org/guide.php?id=7989. Accessed June 19th, 2013.