The adult Police Car Moth (
Gnophaela vermiculata) is all black except for large white spots on wings. The wings have white patches outlined by black veins on a black background. The wingspan is about 54 mm. Although there are a number of similar-looking species in the genus, this is the only species that occurs in Montana. The large size, black and white pattern in combination with the elongate wings and diurnal activity are unique to this species in Montana. The larvae are yellow with uniformly-distributed patches of black hairs that partly obscure the yellow ground color (Coin 2004).
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.
Langton's Forester (
Alypia langtoni) is smaller with black wings with white patches, and the larvae feed on foliage of
Epilobium (fireweed) (USGS no date).
The Police Car Moth occurs in open, wooded areas of the foothills and boreal forest (Schmidt and Robinson no date).
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.
The larvae feed on the foliage and flowers of
Mertensia (bluebells). Adults nectar sources such as
Cirsium (thistle) and
Solidago species (goldenrod) (Coin 2004).
