Lasionycta poca Crabo &amp; Lafontaine 2009, stat. rev.
Creators: name: Crabo, Lars
name: Lafontaine, Donald
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2009
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Lepidoptera
Noctuidae
Lasionycta
Lasionycta poca

description: <i>Lasionycta poca</i> (Barnes &amp; Benjamin), stat. rev. Figs 35, 36, 151, 207. Map 8 <i>Anarta poca</i> Barnes &amp; Benjamin, 1923: 73. <i>Lasiestra leucocycla poca</i>; McDunnough 1938: 72. <i>Lasiestra poca</i>; Franclemont and Todd 1983: 149. <i>Lasionycta leucocycla poca</i>; Lafontaine et al. 1986: 257. <b>Type material.</b> <i>Anarta poca</i>: <b>holotype</b> ♁ [USNM, examined]. Type locality: Pocahontas, Alberta. <b>Diagnosis.</b> <i>Lasionycta poca</i> is a montane species occurring in northwestern North America. It has has a dark-gray forewing with crisp markings and a pale putty-white hindwing with dark basal suffusion, a black postmedial line, and a black marginal band. The underside is distinctive with crisp black discal spots and lines against the white ground. It resembles a white-hindwinged <i>L</i>. <i>leucocycla</i> but differs in having large eyes and a narrowly bipectinate male antenna that is 2.5–3.0× as wide as the shaft. The ventral hindwing of <i>L</i>. <i>poca</i> has a large discal spot and a prominent sinuous postmedial line that parallels the narrow marginal band; <i>L</i>. <i>leucocycla</i> lacks these characters. The male vesica of <i>L</i>. <i>poca</i> usually has two or three basal cornuti (range 0–3), whereas those of most <i>L</i>. <i>leucocycla</i> have none or one (range 0–2). Th e female genitalia are indistinguishable. <i>Lasionycta poca</i> is similar to <i>L</i>. <i>coloradensis</i>, <i>L</i>. <i>frigida</i>, <i>L</i>. <i>illima</i>, and <i>L</i>. <i>sasquatch</i>, all with similar male antennae. Differences between <i>L</i>. <i>poca</i> and these species are given in their diagnosis sections. The CO1 sequence of <i>L</i>. <i>poca</i> differs from <i>L</i>. <i>leucocycla</i> by at least 2.2 % and from <i>L</i>. <i>coloradensis</i> by 0.85 %. It is identical to that of <i>L</i>. <i>sasquatch</i>. <b>Distribution and biology.</b> <i>Lasionycta poca</i> occurs throughout the Rocky Mountains of Alberta, westward to the Coast Range in western British Columbia and southward in the Cascades to Okanogan County, Washington. A dark specimen from southern Yukon examined from a photograph is tentatively assigned to <i>L</i>. <i>poca</i> rather than <i>L</i>. <i>illima</i> but could not be examined to assess eye size. <i>Lasionycta poca</i> is predominantly alpine and is most common near timberline, but occasional specimens are collected in nearby forest. It is mainly nocturnal and is usually collected at light. Adults are found from mid-June through August. <b>Remarks.</b> Lafontaine et al. (1986) treated <i>L</i>. <i>poca</i> as a subspecies of <i>L</i>. <i>leucocycla</i>. Evidence that <i>L</i>. <i>poca</i> and <i>L</i>. <i>leucocycla</i> are distinct species includes the structural and genetic differences described above and the presence of sympatry in western Alberta without intergradation.
description: Published as part of <i>Crabo, Lars &amp; Lafontaine, Donald, 2009, A Revision of Lasionycta Aurivillius (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) for North America and notes on Eurasian species, with descriptions of 17 new species, 6 new subspecies, a new genus, and two new species of Tricholita Grote, pp. 1-156 in ZooKeys 30 (30)</i> on pages 40-41, DOI: 10.3897/zookeys.30.308, http://zenodo.org/record/576576
description: {"references": ["Barnes W, Benjamin FH (1923) Notes and new species. Contributions to the Natural History of the Lepidoptera of North America 5 (2): 62 - 96.", "McDunnough J (1938) Check list of the Lepidoptera of Canada and the United States of America. Part 1 Macrolepidoptera. Memoirs of the Southern California Academy of Sciences 1: 1 - 275.", "Franclemont JG, Todd EL (1983) Noctuidae. pp. 120 - 159. In: Hodges RW, Dominick T, Davis DR, Ferguson DC, Franclemont JG, Munroe EG, Powell JA (1983) Check List of the Lepidoptera of America north of Mexico. E. W. Classey Ltd. and the Wedge Entomological Research Foundation, London, xxiv + 284 pp.", "Lafontaine JD, Kononenko VS, McCabe TL (1986) A Review of the Lasionycta leucocycla complex (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) with descriptions of three new subspecies. The Canadian Entomologist 118: 255 - 279."]}