Lasionycta leucocycla subsp. albertensis

Lasionycta leucocycla albertensis (McDunnough)

Figs 25–29, 147. Map 6

Anarta leucocycla albertensis McDunnough, 1925: 307.

Lasionycta leucocycla albertensis differs from other subspecies in having a yellow hindwing. Both surfaces of the hindwing have a thin discal spot and narrow marginal band. The forewing is gray to light gray brown, often with indistinct markings. Forewings of specimens from western Yukon and Alaska tend to be pale, those from Hudson Bay are dark and distinctly marked, similar to those of subspecies moeschleri, and those from Rocky Mountain populations often have patches of yellow. Subspecies albertensis is similar to Lasionycta illima from Yukon and Alaska, which also has a pale-yellow hindwing. These species can be distinguished by characters described in the L. leucocycla diagnosis section.

In North America L. l. albertensis occurs from west-central Alaska and central Yukon southward in the Rocky Mountains to the Beartooth Plateau on the Montana- Wyoming border. Its range extends eastward to the west coast of Hudson Bay, but it is replaced by L. l. leucocycla near the arctic shore of the mainland. Intermediates between these subspecies are found in a narrow zone near treeline from Arviat, Nunavut to central Yukon. Subspecies albertensis also occurs in the Russian Far East (Lafontaine et al. 1986).