American Ear Moth

Amphipoea americana

The American ear moth is a moth of the Noctuidae family. It is found from coast to coast in the northern United States and southern Canada, it is also present in the Northwest Territories, south in the west to California, south in the east to Georgia

The wingspan is 28–35 mm. Adults are on wing from July to September depending on the location.

The larvae feed on grasses, sedges and sometimes on the roots of corn.
Amphipoea americana Amphipoea americana nectaring on Goldenrod (Solidago sp). Amphipoea americana,Geotagged,Summer,United States

Appearance

Forewing bright rusty-orange shaded with orangish-brown; veins, lines, and spots darker brown; reniform spot filled with either white or bright orange hindwing grayish-brown with orange fringe.
Amphipoea americana (American Ear Moth) Somewhat under-represented on distribution maps for Minnesota with only 10 other occurrence records 8 of which are simply mentions in reports. Larval hosts are grasses, including corn roots, and sedge none of which are in short supply. American Ear Moth,Amphipoea americana,Geotagged,Lepidoptera,Noctuidae,Noctuoidea,Owlet Moths,Summer,United States,insect,moth

Naming

Amphipoea americana (Speyer, 1875)
Hydroecia nicticans var. americana Speyer, 1875
Amphipoea lusca J. B. Smith, 1891
Amphipoea atlantica J. B. Smith, 1899

Distribution

Coast to coast in northern United States and southern Canada, plus Northwest Territories; south in the west to California, south in the east to Georgia.

Food

Larvae feed on grasses, sedges, and sometimes roots of corn.

References:

Some text fragments are auto parsed from Wikipedia.

https://bugguide.net/node/view/10644
Taxonomy
KingdomAnimalia
DivisionArthropoda
ClassInsecta
OrderLepidoptera
FamilyNoctuidae
GenusAmphipoea
SpeciesA. americana
Photographed in
United States of America