| Comment: There are three species of Erythroneura that feed on dogwood and are very similar in appearance; this includes E. rubrella which is a vibrant red color, E. corni which has extensive red markings on the head (compared to E. rubrella, which has limited, less bold markings and has a brighter red color pattern), and E. ontari which has a less vibrant and bold color pattern. A fourth species that feeds on grape, E. rubra, is also very similar in appearance to E. rubrella and E. corni, though it has a pale midline on the top of the head. Due to the similarity between these four species, in some situations a species level identification may not be possible, or be a best guess at most.
Furthermore, identification is confounded by that the fact that E. ontari may be a variant of E. corni rather than a separate species. Dmitriev & Dietrich,
2007 note that "they are often collected together and differ primarily in the length of the dorsal branch of the pygofer process. However, intermediate forms were not found." |
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