Lasionycta coracina Crabo & Lafontaine 2009

Description. Head – Antenna of male weakly biserrate. Antenna of female filiform and ciliate. Dorsal antenna gray with scattered white scales in distal row on each segment. Scape mixed gray and white scales. Eye reduced, ellipsoid. Palpus covered with dark-gray and scattered white scales. Frons and top of head a mixture of dark-gray and white hair-like scales. Thorax – Vestiture of thorax a mixture of dark-gray and white hair-like scales, appearing uniform dark gray. Legs dark gray with lighter gray to white at distal end of tarsal segments. Wings – Forewing length: male 11–13 mm (expanse 23–30 mm); female 12–13 mm (expanse 24–31 mm). Forewing a mixture of slate gray, black, and white scales, appearing uniform to slightly mottled ash gray. Terminal area with luteous scales in some specimens. Basal, antemedial, and postmedial lines dark gray with slightly lighter filling. Basal and antemedial lines undulating. Medial line nearly obsolete, evident as slightly darker area between orbicular and reniform spots. Postmedial line moderately scalloped between veins, excurved between top of cell and fold. Subterminal line pale, evident mostly due to irregular dark shading proximally. Spots dark gray, faint. Orbicular spot round, filled with ground color or pale-gray scales and a faint darker ocellus. Reniform spot faint, evident as a dark smudge. Claviform spot faint and small. Fringe of ground color to pale gray, weakly checkered with darker gray between veins. Ventral forewing brown gray with dark-gray discal spot, subterminal line, and terminal area. Dorsal hindwing dark brown gray with slightly darker gray postmedial line and wide marginal band. Discal spot inconspicuous, slightly darker gray than ground color. Hindwing fringe white. Ventral hindwing covered with pale-gray scales and heavily suffused with dark-gray scales, appearing slightly lighter than ventral forewing. Markings darker gray. Discal spot moderately large and thick. Postmedial line closer to marginal band than to discal spot, variable in darkness, evident only at costa in some specimens and nearly complete in others. Marginal band thin with sharply demarcated medial margin. Fringe uniform luteous to white. Abdomen – Uniformly dark gray. Male genitalia – (Fig. 149). Genital capsule and aedeagus as for L. leucocycla species-group and L. leucocycla sub-group descriptions. Valve approximately 6.8× as long as wide. Single vesica preparation examined lacks subbasal cornuti. Female genitalia – (Fig. 205) Ovipositor, segment VIII, and bursa copulatrix as in L. leucocycla species-group description. Corpus bursae approximately 1.3× ductus bursae length and 0.6× as wide as long with 50 % constriction near base. Appendix bursae relatively wide at base.

Distribution and biology. This species is only known from the Richardson and British Mountains in northern Yukon, adjacent Northwest Territories, and Cape Thompson in northwestern Alaska. Specimens were collected from late June to early August. The habitat in the Richardson Mountains is sparsely vegetated gravel tundra slopes with Dryas (Rosaceae) stripes. The adults feed at Saxifraga spp. (Saxifragaceae). The moths are diurnal, most active in the late afternoon and when cloudy.