Gretchena amatana

Appearance

A dark grayish fuscous species powdered and marked with ashy gray and blackish scales, the paler areas having a somewhat ochreoiis tint especially towards costal margin of fore wing. Fore wing with a distinct, outwardly angulate, dark basal patch; on middle of dorsal margin a somewhat irregular pale blotch, in some specimens extending from basal patch almost to ocellus; ocellus pale but not sharply contrasted; above ocellus a crescent of black scales, often fusing with a short black streak on upper outer edge of cell, forming with it what looks like a thin black sickle; cilia gray dusted with blackish fuscous, somewhat paler at anal angle and with one or two pale dashes below apex. Hind wing smoky fuscous; semilustrous; cilia but slightly paler with a faint dark basal band. Harpe of genitalia with a row of 6 or 7 short stiff marginal spines on lower margin near anal angle of cucullus.

Naming

Gretchena amatana Heinrich, 1923

Specific epithet from Latin "amatus" meaning "loved."

Distribution

US: Connecticut, Illinois Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts New York North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Vermont, West Virginia
Canada: Ontario, Quebec

Food

The larval host plant is unknown but other species are reported to eat the foliage of hickory and pecan (Carya), walnut (Juglans), and alder (Alnus).