Montana Field Guide

The Leucania phragmitidicola wingspan is about 32 mm. The forewing is light tan but not uniformly-colored. There is an indistinct and diffuse pale band that runs obliquely from the apex to the inner margin. The pale band is surrounded on both sides by slightly darker shading. The antemedian line is composed of several dark but inconspicuous dots. The main vein runs from the base to middle of wing. The main vein is whitish, bordered by a thick dark line on inner edge, and has slightly darker shading along the outer margin. The hindwing is white with no dark border (Powell and Opler, 2009).

Shropshire and Tallamy (2025) provide a list, with synonymies, of 13,055 described native, exotic, and occasional straying Lepidoptera species of North America, north of Mexico; known but undescribed taxa, taxa with unresolved taxonomy, and excluded species are also included. The main manuscript includes links to supplementary materials, including a reference list for Lepidoptera of North America north of Mexico, and a filterable spreadsheet with information on taxonomy, synonymy, size ranges of species, distribution by state, province, and country with references, and host-plant Family and Genus associations with references.

L. phragmitidicola adults fly from June to October (Powell and Opler, 2009).

Shropshire and Tallamy (2025) provide a link to a supplemental filterable spreadsheet with information on host-plant Family and Genus associations with references for all Lepidoptera species of North America, north of Mexico.

L. phragmitidicola larvae feed on grasses, presumably including the Phragmites species (Powell and Opler, 2009).