In the United States this moth has a distribution centered around the Gulf Coast from Texas to Florida. On the East Coast strays have been recorded as far north as New Jersey (BugGuide). There is one Maryland sighting known to MBP, photographed by Scott Houston on Assateague Island NS on 9/30/2014.
The Pannaria Wave Moth strays north in the fall. This species of moth should be looked for around lights during September and October along the coast.
The major host plant for the Pannaria Wave Moth is Cowpea. MBP only has one record for this plant in Maryland from the Norton-Brown Herbarium collected by Norton in Baltimore City in 1941 by the county seed warehouse. This plant is considered a waif and due to the lack of established populations cannot be reliably considered a viable host plant for the Pannaria Wave Moth in Maryland. In an article published by the Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington (Matthews, Covell, et al. Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Washington, 116(1):36-68. 2014.) called "Larval Hostplants of Geometridae (Lepidoptera) Collected by Dale H. Habeck in Florida" the authors found the Pannaria Wave Moth using Annual Ragweed as a host plant. If breeding of Pannaria Wave Moth ever takes place in Maryland, Annual Ragweed would seem to be the host plant of choice.
There is 1 record in the project database.
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