Thoreau's Flower Moth

Schinia thoreaui · Order: Lepidoptera · Family: Noctuidae

No source yet on danger. We have no source yet on whether it bites, stings or damages anything.
Thoreau's Flower Moth
Photo: Annika Lindqvist, CC BY

The adult moth has a wingspan of about 32 mm. It lives in parts of North America, including several U.S. states and Canadian provinces. Adults are seen flying from June through August, and the caterpillars eat plants of the Ambrosia genus.

Source: Wikipedia

Size

Wingspan is roughly 32 mm.

Source: Wikipedia

What it eats

Larvae feed on species of the plant genus Ambrosia.

Source: Wikipedia

When you see it

Adults are on the wing from June to August.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it comes from

Its native range includes the same North American locations as its habitat.

Source: Wikipedia

Where it is found in the US

Recorded in 26 of 51 states and DC. Most records: Texas, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Kansas, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri.

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

Source: GBIF

Status: native in North America; native in United States; 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 Thoreau's Flower Moths active?

Adults fly between June and August.

Source: Wikipedia

What do the caterpillars eat?

The larvae feed on Ambrosia species.

Source: Wikipedia

How big is this moth?

Its wingspan is about 32 mm.

Source: Wikipedia

Same family (Noctuidae)

Sources

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

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