NC State University Insect Museum

Alabama argillacea specimen collected in Clayton in 1972.

Dave Wagner has an interesting piece in the most recent issue of American Entomologist - Ode to Alabama: the meteoric fall of a once extraordinarily abundant moth - that documents the recent history of a once formidable but now largely absent (in North America, anyway) pest. Here's the gist: Alabama argillacea (Hübner) (Noctuidae: Catocalinae, as it's classified in our collection), the cotton leafworm, develops as a specialist on native cotton plants, especially Gossypium hirsutum (Malvaceae). As this species of plant became a commercial success, and its cultivation spread throughout the Americas, the moth's range and population(s) grew prodigiously, often achieving passenger pigeon-like numbers (becoming perhaps the most important pest of cotton at the time). Waves of moths would darken the skies (in my version of the story, anyway) in the fall as they migrated north from the cotton-saturated south. Then, as cultural and pest management practices evolved, the moth's numbers declined. The last specimen seen in North America (at least north of Mexico) was collected in Louisiana in 1998.

Alabama argillacea specimen collected in a Clayton cotton field in 1972.

These kinds of stories intrigue me, especially when data from insect collections (see Table 1 in the paper) are used as supporting evidence. I just had to check our research collection, of course, to see how our data could help solve this mysterious decline. When was this species last sighted in NC? Table 1 has a record from J. B. Sullivan in Beaufort (one of our honorary curators!) from October, 1973. Our research collection holds a specimen from 1972 (images above), collected in a cotton field in Clayton, but most of the other specimens are from 1905-1950s.

I've queued up these 46 specimens to be barcoded and databased. Their collecting event data will be fed to GBIF soon thereafter, which clearly needs more records for this species. In the meantime here are our specimens for your enjoyment!

46 Alabama argillacea specimens in the NCSU Insect Museum Research Collection.

p.s. Just what is the etymology of Catocalinae? Could it possibly be what I think it is!?