Connected Dagger - Hodges#9219

Adult: forewing yellowish-gray with broad blackish basal and anal dashes that are diffuse, blurred, and more-or-less connected in lower median area; dull orangish shading usually noticeable in upper median area (inside and distal to reniform spot); distal half of orbicular spot and basal half of reniform spot edged in black; hindwing variably dirty white to light gray with dark veins Larva: body dark green with two thick yellow subdorsal stripes; each abdominal segment has four black dorsal dots arranged in distinctive pattern; head usually green with lobes reddened above, but may also be reddish-brown, gray, or black Specimens from the Gulf Coast through south-western Texas into Mexico have the long basal-posterior dark streak reduced or absent, and the ground color is a more even, paler brown. These populations were previously placed as A. rapidan , but the pattern differences are clinal, with specimens from central Texas and eastward along the Gulf Coast showing progressively more contrast in forewing shading. There are no discernible genitalic structure differences, although three specimens of the rapidan phenotype from southern Texas differ by 2% in DNA barcodes from A. connecta .