About the Bride Underwing
Catocala neogama, the bride, is a moth in the family Erebidae first described by James Edward Smith in 1797. It is found in North America east of the Rocky Mountains, from Maine and Quebec south to northern Florida and west to South Dakota, New Mexico, and into Arizona and Texas. Its westernmost population from the semiarid Colorado Plateau region is rather distinct and was once considered a separate species, but is now regarded as a well-marked subspecies C. n. euphemia.
The wingspan is 70–85 mm; C. n. euphemia is distinctly larger (around 90 mm). The forewings are brownish gray above, evenly dark from base to tip or with the center somewhat darker, and varying geographically between somewhat paler and browner in the aridland population and darker gray marked with brown in the eastern individuals (see Gloger's rule). The hindwings are conspicuously colored in various hues of orange with roughly concentric black markings above. Their basal area carries a dense covering of thin dark hairs which stretches along the dorsum, making this area appear more brownish or reddish. Through the hindwing center runs a black band from the leading almost to the trailing... Wikipedia →