Interrupted Dagger

Rare, at the extreme western edge of it's range in southeastern Alberta.

A worn adult was collected in Alberta in mid August.

Across southern Canada south of the Boreal forest, from New Brunswick west to eastern Alberta, south to GA, NE, and AR. In Alberta it has been collected only once to date (2001), in riparian shrub along the South Saskatchewan River near the Saskatchewan border, south of Empress. An eastern species that barely reaches Alberta in the dry southeastern part of the province.

A medium-size (3.5-4.2 cm wingspan) pale grey moth. The forewings have a prominent black basal dash, which forks upward and downward at the antemedian line, and a thin, prominent black streak through a dark patch ("dagger-mark") in the anal angle. The cross-lines, with the exception of the postmedian line, are incomplete and indicated mainly by black marks where they meet the costa. The orbicular is a prominent pale spot narrowly outlined in dark scales. The reniform is vestigial, and consists of a dark marking the proximal side. The postmedian line is complete, s-shaped, doubled, and filled with white scales. The fringe is checkered, with the dark scales between the veins. The hindwing is dirty white in the male, darkening near the outer margin and along the outer veins, and light grey with a faint postmedian band in the female. Antennae in both sexes simple.

Dry deciduous woodland edge and tall shrub.

A solitary defoliator of deciduous trees and shrubs. There is a single annual brood that overwinters in the pupal stage. Adults come to light.

A variety of deciduous trees and shrubs. No Alberta data, but elsewhere in Canada White elm (Ulmus americana) appears to be the main larval host, with the occasional record of pin cherry (Prunus pennsylvanicus), Ironwood (Ostrya virginiana), Mountain ash (Sorbus sp.), White and Yellow birch (Betula papyrifera and B. lutea), and willow (Salix sp.). Other hosts include apple (Malus sp.), oak (Quercus) and hawthorn (Craetagus).

Acronicta interrupta, the interrupted dagger moth, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Achille Guenée in 1852. It is found across southern Canada south of the boreal forest, from New Brunswick west to eastern Alberta, south to Georgia, Nebraska and Arizona.

The wingspan is 35–42 mm. Adults are on wing from April to August or September depending on the location. There are two or more generations per year in the south and one in the north.

The larvae feed on apple, apricot, birch, cherry, crabapple, elm, hawthorn, hop-hornbeam, mountain-ash, oak, plum and willow.