Montana Field Guide

Help

Montana Field Guides

Home - Other Field Guides
- Kingdom - Animals - Animalia
  - Phylum - Spiders, Insects, and Crustaceans - Arthropoda
    - Class - Insects - Insecta
      - Order - Butterflies / Moths - Lepidoptera
        
        Family - Snout Moths - Pyralidae
        
        Species - A Grass-veneer Moth - Crambus ainsliellus

A Grass-veneer Moth - Crambus ainsliellus

Image Copyright and Usage Information

Native Species

Global Rank: GNR
State Rank: SNR

Agency Status
USFWS:
USFS:
BLM:

External Links

General Description

Crambus ainsliellus is a medium sized Crambus (21 - 29 mm wingspan). The forewing is yellowish-brown. The discal silvery stripe is broad, somewhat scimitar shaped, not crossed by dark brown lines and lacks a tooth on the underside of the stripe. The forewing lacks a sinuous white submedial line and a white patch beyond the stripe. The forewing base has a costal brown area that is reduced to a single line. The hindwing is grayish with a dirty white fringe (Powell and Opler 2009).

Phenology

C. ainsliellus adults fly from August to September (Powell and Opler 2009).

Range Comments

C. ainsliellus is a North American species. It occurs in British Columbia, Manitoba, Washington, Montana, South Dakota, Iowa and Maine (Powell and Opler 2009).

Observations in Montana Natural Heritage Program Database

Number of Observations: 2

(Click on the following maps and charts to see full sized version) Map Help and Descriptions

Relative Density

Recency

(Observations spanning multiple months or years are excluded from time charts)

Habitat

C. ainsliellus prefers grassland areas (Powell and Opler 2009).

Food Habits

Unknown, but probably grass roots (Powell and Opler, 2009).

Stewardship Responsibility

References

Additional ReferencesLegend: View Online Publication
Do you know of a citation we're missing?
- Powell, J.A. and P.A. Opler. 2009. Moths of Western North America. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA. 369 pp.
Web Search Engines for Articles on "A Grass-veneer Moth"
Additional Sources of Information Related to "Insects"

Take us with you!

Look for this PDF icon as you search and browse. Click it to build a custom PDF with species shown on that page or for all the species within that taxonomic level. To create your own list of species, use the PDF Creator tool at the bottom of the Advanced Search page.

Here's some links if you want to download a whole group.

Dragonflies / Damselflies

Ferns and allies

Conifers

Flowering Plants (Dicots)

Flowering Plants (Monocots)

Citation for data on this website:
A Grass-veneer Moth — Crambus ainsliellus. Montana Field Guide. Montana Natural Heritage Program. Retrieved on November 3, 2025, from https://FieldGuide.mt.gov/speciesDetail.aspx?elcode=IILER5Z160