Aseptis marina

Aseptis marina · Order: Lepidoptera · Family: Noctuidae

No source yet on danger. We have no source yet on whether it bites, stings or damages anything.
Aseptis marina
Photo: Madeleine Claire, CC BY

Aseptis marina is a moth with a wingspan of about 30 to 35 mm and mossy-green forewings marked with dark mottling. It lives in coastal chaparral, mountain forest, mountain-desert transition zones and deserts from sea level up to at least 2000 m across coastal California and southwestern Oregon. Adults are on the wing from April through early July.

Source: Wikipedia

How to recognize it

The forewings are a mossy green with dark gray to black mottling that hides most lines and spots.

Source: Wikipedia

Size

The wingspan ranges from about 29.5 to 35 mm.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it lives

It lives in many habitats, from coastal chaparral and mountain forest to mountain-desert transition zones and even deserts, from sea level up to at least 2000 m.

Source: Wikipedia

What it eats

The caterpillars feed on plants such as Nemophila, Pholistoma auritium, Lilja and Lithophragma species.

Source: Wikipedia

Life cycle

Adults are on the wing from April through early July.

Source: Wikipedia

When you see it

Adults are on the wing from April to early July.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it comes from

It is native to coastal California and southwestern Oregon, extending north to Douglas County, and is common throughout southern California.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it is found in the US

Recorded in 2 of 51 states and DC. Most records: California, Oregon.

Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.

Source: GBIF

Status: native in Canada. Source: iNaturalist

Months it is reported in the US

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Source: GBIF

More photos

Questions people ask

When are adult Aseptis marina active?

Adults fly from April through early July.

Source: Wikipedia

Same family (Noctuidae)

Sources

  • Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viridiseptis

Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · Wikipedia

Text written 2026-10-25 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-25.

How this page works

This is one bug's fact sheet. The colored box at the top says whether it is dangerous. Sections below cover how to recognize it, whether it is a pest, and how to deal with it. The US map shows which states have records; tap a state to see other bugs there.

Every fact on Bug FAQ comes from a named source (university extension sites, government agencies, GBIF, iNaturalist, Wikipedia). The source is linked next to each section. If we have no source for something, we leave it out.