Haploa lecontei (Boisduval, [1829])

Boisduval, J. B. A. D. de, in Guérin-Méneville, F. E. ([1829]-1844).
Iconographie du Règne Animal de G. Cuvier, Insectes: pl. 88, fig. 4 [1829]; text
p. 517 (1844). Described in the genus Callimorpha. Translated from the French
original.

Fig. 4. S.-G. CALLIMORPHE. Latr. V. 406. C. de Leconte.
Callimorpha Lecontei. Boisd.

Body white, with the top of the head of a pale yellow and a black or brown line
running from the prothorax to the extremity of the abdomen. Fore wings black or
brown, according to the more or less fresh condition of the moth, each showing
five large rounded and irregular white spots, sometimes touching one another, as
in the specimen figured, in which the two middle spots are united, whereas in
another it is the two spots of the apex that have merged. Hind wings without
spots. Under side similar to the upper side, but with the black parts very pale.
Legs slightly tinted with yellow. -- Expanse 52 mill. -- Hab. North America.

Hampson, G. F. (1901). Catalogue of the Lepidoptera Phalaenae in the British
Museum, vol. 3: p. 494.

2101. Haploa lecontei.
Callimorpha lecontei, Guér. Icon. R. Anim., Ins. p. 517, pl. 88. f. 4 (1829);
Stretch, Zyg. & Bomb. N. Am. pp. 62, 236, pl. 2. ff. 20, 21 & pl. 9. ff. 13, 14;
Streck. Proc. Davenport Soc. i. p. 275, pl. 4. ff. 5, 7; Lyman, Can. Ent. xix.
p. 182, ff. 1, 2; Smith, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. x. p. 348, pl. 14. ff. 12-16;
Kirby, Cat. Het. p. 252.
Callimorpha militaris, Harr. Rep. Ins. Mass. p. 245 (1841); Smith, Proc. U.S.
Nat. Mus. x. p. 345, pl. 14. ff. 3-5; Kirby, Cat. Het. p. 253.
Hypercompa confinis, Wlk. ii. p. 651 (1853); Lyman, Can. Ent. xix. p. 183, f. 6;
Kirby, Cat. Het. p. 253.
Callimorpha leucomelas, Herr.-Schaff. Aussereur. Schmett. f. 481 (1858).

Head and tegulae orange; palpi at tips and antennae black-brown; tegulae often
with black-brown spots; thorax white, with black-brown stripes on shoulders and
vertex; pectus white; legs tinged with orange, the fore and mid legs striped
with black-brown; abdomen white, often with dorsal black-brown stripe. Fore wing
white; a black-brown costal fascia narrowing to a point before apex; a fascia on
inner margin, narrowing to a point near base; an antemedial band oblique from
costal fascia to submedian fold where it is angled; a nearly erect discoidal
band from costal fascia to the fascia on inner margin, where it is joined by an
oblique fascia from termen below apex; a terminal band often ending in a point
above tornus. Hind wing pure white.

Ab. 1. militaris. Fore wing with the oblique band from below apex interrupted
towards termen and between veins 3, 4.

Ab. 2. confinis. Fore wing with the oblique band complete, the other bands
aborted.

Ab. 3. Fore wing white with the costal edge ochreous.

Hab. Canada, Orella (Bush), 2 ♀; U.S.A., Atlantic States, 3 ♂, 2 ♀ (Doubleday),
type confinis, Ohio (Drury), 1 ♀, Massachusetts, Beverly, 1 ♂. Exp. 50 millim.

Seitz, A. (1919). Haploa. In: Seitz, A. (ed.), The Macrolepidoptera of the
World, vol. 6, The American Bombyces and Sphinges: p. 300, pl. 38 g (German
edition: Die Gross-Schmetterlinge der Erde 6: 300).

H. lecontei Bsd. (= leucomelas H.-Schäff.) (38 g). Typical specimens have an
entirely white ground-colour; the forewings are margined with black and exhibit
a dark oblique band from the apex towards the distal part of the proximal
margin, a white oval in the apex and a small cell-end band from the costa. -- In
militaris Harr. (= harrisii Dyar) the oblique band of the forewing is once or
twice interrupted, and the ground-colour in the ♂ is sometimes tinted creamy-
yellow. -- confinis Wkr. has a complete oblique band, but the marginal bands of
the forewings are reduced. -- smithii Dyar exhibits the dark stripes interrupted
as well as of an irregular course. -- In dyari Merrick there are no dark
markings at all; the insect is unicolorously bone-yellow, so that it may only
form a transition to the following species, which is regarded by some (Dyar,
Holland) to be merely another form of lecontei. -- Larva black with a bright
yellow dorsal and a similar lateral line (Strecker); it lives on Triosteum
perfoliatum, and wherever this is growing abundantly, the butterflies are often
met with in big crowds at the end of May and beginning of June. Atlantic States
of the Union, from New England to Georgia, and to the west as far as the
Mississippi.