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Drasteria pallescens · Order: Lepidoptera · Family: Erebidae

Also called: Cowhead Arches Moth

No source yet on danger. We have no source yet on whether it bites, stings or damages anything.

The moth has a wingspan of about 35 mm. Adults fly in June in the northern part of its range and earlier farther south.

How to recognize it

Drasteria pallescens, known as the cowhead arches, belongs to the moth family Erebidae.

Its wingspan is roughly 35 mm.

It lives across North America from Alberta and Saskatchewan down to Texas and Baja California.

Adults are on the wing in June in northern areas and likely earlier in southern locations.

Its native range covers much of North America, from Canadian provinces to the southern United States and Baja California.

Recorded in 19 of 51 states and DC. Most records: California, Texas, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Montana, Utah, Oklahoma.

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

Source: GBIF

Status: native in North America; native in Canada; native in United States. Source: iNaturalist

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Source: GBIF

When are these moths active?

Adults fly in June in the north and probably earlier farther south.

How big is the cowhead arches moth?

Its wingspan is about 35 mm.

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

Text written 2026-10-23 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-23.