Gray Retinia Moth

Appearance

Head, palpi, and thorax light gray, speckled with fuscous and black; the darker shades predominating on outer sides of palpi and patagia. Antennae light gray, annulated with black, very shortly ciliated in male. Palpi short, scarcely extending beyond face, porrect; outer
joint short, black, exposed; tuft on second joint flattened, neither compressed or loosely scaled, longer on upper than lower side. Forewing pale, rather lustrous gray, crossed transversely by many inter- rupted lines and narrow ])ands of black. The gray appears to be laid on a black ground rather than the reverse, and the gray lines are usually in pairs. In basal area, which is not veiy distinctly delined, occupying the inner quarter, three geminate white lines are more or
less fused together; beyond, to the outer margin, they are more distinctly in pairs, of which, between inner fourth and apex, are about six on costa, extending a third or half the width of wing; below these other abbreviated pairs continue to the dorsal margin, but, excepting one line just before the outer marginal lines, none continue unbroken from costa to dorsum. There is a tendency in several specimens for the black to overrun the gray in three rather distinct spots, about six on the costa, extending a third or half the width of wing, and one before apex, and on dorsum half way between the two costal spots. A rather large triangular black spot on the extreme apex, and between it and the base the costa is rather evenly marked l)y alternate gray and lilack, about twelve to fif-teen of each. This numbsr is reduced on the specimens with large
black costal blotches. Of the four specimens before me no two are exactly alike in the proportions of light and dark colors, nor is the lineation sufficiently duplicated to describe one in detail as the type.

Cilia gray. Hind wing, upper and lower sitles dark gray, cilia paler. Under side front wing dark fuscous, with whitish costal and dorsal marks repeated from above. Abdomen and anal tuft gray. Expanse 19 to 21 mm.

Naming

Retinia gemistrigulana (Kearfott, 1905)
Evetria gemistrigulana Kearfott, 1905 (1)
Petrova gemistrigulana

Specific epithet from geminate (double, in pairs) and strigulae (fine, short transverse marks or lines) meaning "paired-lines." Kearfott describes these lines in great detail.

Distribution

Records from eastern United States and southeastern Canada.

Food

Larval host is pine (Pinus).