Cannings, Robert A.

Copley, Claudia R.

English

Journal of the Entomological Society of British Columbia

J. ENTOMOL. SOC. BRIT. COLUMBIA 102, DECEMBER 2005  83  SCIENTIFIC NOTE Notes on the status of the Eurasian moths Noctua pronuba and Noctua comes (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)  on Vancouver Island, British Columbia CLAUDIA R. COPLEY1,2 and ROBERT A. CANNINGS2 Two Eurasian cutworm moths (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), Noctua pronuba (Linnaeus) and Noctua comes (Hübner), both accidentally introduced to North America, are now sympatric in southwest-ern British Columbia. The former was first recorded in Nova Scotia, the latter in Brit-ish Columbia. This paper reports the occur-rence of both species for the first time on Vancouver Island. They are the only spe-cies of the genus Noctua known in North America (Lafontaine 1998). Noctua pronuba (the large yellow un-derwing) was first reported in North Amer-ica in Nova Scotia in 1979 (Neil 1981). It is now known from every Canadian province and Nunavut (Troubridge and Lafontaine 2005) and, in the USA, from Maine (Wright 1987) to Louisiana (Brou 1997) and Cali-fornia (Powell 2002). It was first recorded in BC in 2002 (CNC [Canadian National Collection of Insects and Arachnids, Ot-tawa] data) and is now abundant on eastern Vancouver Island as far north as Sayward (RBCM [Royal British Columbia Museum, Victoria] data) and areas of the lower Fraser River Valley (K. Needham, pers. comm.). We have yet to hear of any records from the BC Interior. Noctua comes (the lesser yellow under-wing) was first recorded in Canada in Bur-naby, BC in August 1982 (Neil 1984) al-though a specimen in the Spencer Entomo-logical Museum, UBC (University of Brit-ish Columbia, Vancouver) was collected in Vancouver in July 1982. This species was first recorded on Vancouver Island in Vic-toria in 1990 (PFC [Pacific Forestry Centre, Victoria] data) and is now abundant in sub-urban habitats there. Elsewhere in BC N. comes has been found in the Okanagan Val-ley and Lillooet and south to Oregon (Lafontaine 1998, J. Troubridge, pers. comm.). Noctua pronuba has a wingspan of 50-60 mm and a diagnostic orange-yellow hindwing with a broad black border. Images of adults and larvae are in Wright (1987), Lafontaine (1998), and Neil and Specht (1987). Noctua  comes is similar but nor-mally has a black mark near the centre of the orange of the hindwing; genitalia differ-ences distinguish the two species unequivo-cally (Lafontaine 1998). Although N. pronuba is known to be migratory and a very strong flier (Passoa and Hollingsworth 1996), its spread may have been facilitated by human activity. It has a wide range of host plants, many of which are part of the horticultural trade, food-crop industry, or are widespread weeds. Host plant genera include: Holcus (J. Tatum, pers. comm.), Poa and other grasses (Wright and Neil, 1983), Atriplex, Chrysanthemum, Dianthus, Fragaria, Free-sia, Gladiolus, Myosotis, Polygonum, Pri-mula, Ribes,  Stellaria, Taraxacum and Viola. Larvae also eat various common food crops (Passoa and Hollingsworth 1996, B. Duncan, pers. comm). Noctua comes has been recorded on Conium, Cor-nus, Potentilla, Calendula, Cardamine, Cirsium, Digitalis, Fragaria, Myosotis, Plantago, Primula but, most often, on Ru-mex crispus (J. Tatum, pers. comm.) as well as tobacco and grapes (Sannino and Espinosa 1999) and Crataegus (Ward 2003). Life-history details of N. pronuba are reported in Singh and Kevan (1965), 1 Corresponding author, email: ccopley@royalbcmuseum.bc.ca 2 Royal British Columbia Museum, 675 Belleville Street, Victoria, BC, V8W 9W2  84  J. ENTOMOL. SOC. BRIT. COLUMBIA 102, DECEMBER 2005   Wright and Neil (1983), Morris (1987), and Passoa and Hollingsworth (1996). In British Columbia, N. pronuba will likely exhibit the univoltine life history typical of Euro-pean and eastern North American popula-tions.  Each female lays up to 2000 eggs on leaf undersides (Morris 1987) or non-host substrates (B. Duncan, pers. comm.). Lar-vae feed on foliage, crowns and roots of hosts; immature larvae usually overwinter (Morris 1987), but in coastal BC mature larvae also do so (B. Duncan, pers. comm.). Mature larvae pupate in the soil in the spring (Passoa and Hollingsworth 1996). Tachinid flies parasitize N. pronuba in east-ern North America (J. Troubridge, pers. comm.), but have not been recorded in BC on N. comes or N. pronuba (J. Tatum, pers. comm.). However, Trichogramma wasps parasitize egg masses in the province (B. Duncan, pers. comm.). As it is a strong, migratory flier (Passoa and Hollingsworth 1996), can endure very cold winters (Wright and Neil 1983), and feeds on a wide array of plants associated with humans, N. pronuba will probably colonize all of BC. Adults may lay eggs on non-plant substrates (B. Duncan, pers. comm) or hide during the day in objects around human habitation (although they fly readily when disturbed), making them good candidates for transport by vehicles.   Because of its growing abundance in coastal BC, we believe that N. pronuba may become an economic pest, although in the long-term, populations will likely be mod-erated by increasing parasitism. Noctua comes will probably have a similar future.  We thank Jane Seed, Karen Needham and Chris Borkent for data from PFC, UBC and CNC collections, respectively and the following colleagues for their permission to use their personal communications. Jim Troubridge (Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Ottawa, ON) and Karen Needham (UBC, Vancouver, BC) provided informa-tion on distribution. Jeremy Tatum (University of Victoria, Victoria, BC) and Bob Duncan (PFC, Victoria, BC) com-mented on food plants and life history.  REFERENCES Brou, V. 1997. A Gulf Coast record of the European cutworm, Noctua pronuba (L.). News of the Southern Lepidopterists’ Society 19: 3. Lafontaine, J.D. 1998. Noctuoidea, Noctuidae (part). In Dominick, R.B. et al. The Moths of America North of Mexico, Fascicle 27.3. The Wedge Entomological Research Foundation, Washington, DC.  Morris, R.F. 1987. Note on occurrence of the large yellow underwing moth, Noctua pronuba (Linnaeus) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), in Newfoundland. The Canadian Entomologist 119: 403-404. Neil, K.A. 1981. The occurrence of Noctua pronuba, (Noctuidae) in Nova Scotia: a new North America record. Journal of the Lepidopterist’s Society 35: 248. Neil, K.A. 1984. Noctua comes, a noctuid new to North America (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae: Noctuinae). The Canadian Entomologist 116: 479-480. Neil, K.A. and H.B. Specht. 1987. Sixth-instar larvae of Noctua pronuba (L.)(Lepidoptera: Noctuidae). The Canadian Entomologist 119: 209-214. Passoa, S. and C.S. Hollingsworth. 1996. Distribution, identification and rate of spread of Noctua pronuba (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) in the northeastern United States. Entomological News 107: 151-160. Powell J.A. 2002. Noctua pronuba reaches the Pacific Coast. News of the Lepidopterists’ Society 44: 120. Sannino, L. and B. Espinosa. 1999. On the morphology of Noctua comes (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae). Il Ta-bacco 7: 35-43. Singh, M.P. and D.K. Kevan. 1965. Notes on three common British species of agrotid moth. Entomologists Record and Journal of Variation 68: 233-235. Troubridge, J.T. and J.D. Lafontaine. 2005. The Moths of Canada. Part 1, Noctuoidea of Western Canada and Part 2, Noctuoidea of Eastern Canada. Canadian Biodiversity Information Facility, Government of Canada, Ottawa, ON. http://www.cbif.gc.ca/spp_pages/misc_moths/phps/mothindex_e.php. Ward, J. 2003. Moths of Northamptonshire. Northamptonshire Moth Group. http://www.northamptonshirewildlife.co.uk/nmoths/nmoths.htm Wright, B. 1987. The European yellow underwing, Noctua pronuba (L.)(Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) in the Atlantic provinces (Canada) and the State of Maine (USA). The Canadian Entomologist 119: 993-997. Wright, B. and K.A. Neil. 1983. Noctua pronuba, a European cutworm, established in Nova Scotia (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae). The Canadian Entomologist 115: 1047-1048.  

Notes on the status of the Eurasian moths Noctua pronuba and Noctua comes (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) on Vancouver Island, British Columbia

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Notes on the status of the Eurasian moths Noctua pronuba and Noctua comes (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) on Vancouver Island, British Columbia

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