University of Alberta Museums Search

A very small (13-16 mm wingspan) dark brown to dull black moth with elongate, squared-off forewings. The forewings are dark brown to dull black-brown, fading in older specimens to chocolate-brown. There is a faintly darker narrow median band, with a few white scales marking the reniform and the postmedian area. Beyond this the wing darkens slightly to a narrow, subterminal band of pale scales. The hindwings are slightly paler sooty brown, darker toward the margin. Antennae simple. Sexes similar. The very similar H. fractilinea Sm. is smaller yet (11-14 mm wingspan) lighter grey-brown with a more contrasting pattern. Hypenodes sombrus is most likely to be mistaken for a microlepidopteran.

Almost nothing is known. Adults are nocturnal and come to light. There appears to be a single annual brood. Alberta specimens have been collected in the last half of July. Apparently nothing is known about the larval host(s).

Hypenodes sombrus is one of several Hypenodes sp. described by Ferguson in 1954, after Bowman's time. Two Alberta specimens of sombrus were recently found in Bowman's series of H. fractilinea in the Strickland Museum.