Spring te vini nan nò Kalifòni ak papiyon yo sou zèl a. Mwen te pran yon vwayaj rapid jiska pye mòn yo Sierra pandan fen semèn nan ak hiked moute pant yo apik pi wo a larivyè Lefrat la Ameriken. Above is pictured Xanthothrix ranunculi f. albipuncta (Slide: Stiriinae). It happens to be sitting on a beautiful california poppy. The hostplant, sepandan, se Coreopsis stillmanii and grows in small patches of serpentine soils on southern facing slopes along the central valley. Here is a Xanthothrix sitting on the host.
This moth was originally described as a form of X. ranunculi nan 1925 (form roughly equals subspecies today), and then completely forgotten about and unseen until 1990. It was left out of a major revision of the subfamily, so the legitimate status as a subspecies or full species remains unknown. Stay tuned.
