Acronicta americana, the American dagger moth, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It was originally described by Thaddeus William Harris in 1841 and is native to North America.
No narrative description available for this taxon yet.
A DNA barcode is a short, standardised stretch of genes that works like a fingerprint — enough to tell one species from another. Below is the molecular trace Acronicta americana has left across the world's sequence archives.
At a glance
DNA specimens86
BINs1
Marker genes2
eDNA detections87
Countries2
The DNA barcodethe species' typical barcode, built from every sequenced specimen
COI-5P658 bp consensus85 specimens
ACGT
▸ drag or hover over the strip to read any position — letter and how much it varies
Violet ticks below the strip = positions where individuals differ; flat = the species' unchanging signature. 98% of positions are identical in every specimen.
Where individuals differ — all 10 variable positions, in barcode order
Each circle is a barcode variant; bigger = more specimens, colour = region. Lines join the most similar variants and the tick marks count the mutations between them — a tight cluster is one “dialect”, a long line a more divergent lineage. Click a circle to list its actual specimens.
Diversity (π)0.59%
Haplotypes18
BIN1
Most divergent pair1.7%
N.America
Closest relatives by DNA barcode
The species whose COI barcode is most similar to this one — a quick “who is this most like”. The percentage is how much the barcode differs; it approximates, but is not, the full evolutionary tree.
★ the standard DNA barcode for this group — the short region actually read to tell this species apart. The rest are extra genes sequenced along the way.
★COI-3P★COI-5P
animal barcode
08Occurrence & distribution
Record type21 816 records
Wild obs. + sensor20 854
Museum / vouchered962
Range
Area of Occupancy AOO58 776 km²
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Coordinate accuracy84% within 1 km
≤100 m 12 917≤1 km 2 256≤10 km 1 266>10 km 1 677
18 116 georeferenced · 2 738 without coordinates
Open the mapobservation + sensor20 854
Museum / Voucheredphysical evidence
Backed by a physical specimen — a herbarium sheet, sample or voucher held in a collection. “Vouchered” means supported by material evidence, not just an observation.
Coordinate accuracy27% within 1 km
≤100 m 19≤1 km 136≤10 km 373>10 km 48
576 georeferenced · 386 without coordinates
Open the institutions mapphysical evidence962
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
10Collections & institutions
Holding institutions19 of 41 geolocated
Institutions and collections holding physical, vouchered specimens of this species — click a row to fly to it on the map.
Institution
Specimens
New Haven, US
234
East Lansing, US
174
Mississippi State, US
60
Cleveland Museum of Natural History, OH (CLEV)location not on record
56
Colorado State Universitylocation not on record
44
OSUClocation not on record
36
St. Paul, US
31
University of Guelph, Centre for Biodiversity Genomicslocation not on record
30
Georgia Museum of Natural Historylocation not on record
24
Royal Saskatchewan Museumlocation not on record
23
CUlocation not on record
22
King Saud Universitylocation not on record
22
University of Alberta Museums (UAM)location not on record
20
Cornell University Insect Collectionlocation not on record
13
Philadelphia, US
12
Toronto, CA
11
Florida Museum of Natural History- Zoology, Paleontology & Paleobotanylocation not on record
8
North Carolina State University Insect Museumlocation not on record
7
UDlocation not on record
7
Vernal, US
6
US
6
UNHClocation not on record
5
SOVTlocation not on record
5
Awka, NG
4
Cambridge, US
4
Natural History Museum of Utahlocation not on record
3
Decorah, US
3
Denver, US
3
Washington, US
2
University of California, Davislocation not on record
2
Oregon State Arthropod Collectionlocation not on record
2
Tartu, EE
1
University of Central Floridalocation not on record
1
Brussels, BE
1
RBINS-Scientific Heritagelocation not on record
1
Zürich, CH
1
Universidad Católica de Manizaleslocation not on record
1
University Park, US
1
Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural Historylocation not on record
1
Champaign, US
1
Chicago, US
1
41 institutions · 889 of 962 vouchered records shown · 73 without an institution code
09Environmental DNA87 detections
Where the DNA of Acronicta americana was picked up in samples of water, soil or air — nobody saw the organism, only its DNA left behind. A trace is a clue that the species was near, not a confirmed sighting.
Signal
Detections DNA found87
Studies independent surveys1
Countries2
Signal confidence: weakweighed across independent studies, places & mapped detections
Where its DNA was found
0 of 87 detections have coordinates
Open the map2 countries0
Temperate mixed forestGrasslandUrbanForest
How strong is each trace?
DNA read depthRead counts were not reported for this species — the map shows presence only, not how strong each trace was.
Modelled climatemodelled
−15°Ctemperature across detection sites+40°C
Temperature median19.4 °C 15.2–22.5
Seasonal swing summer↔winter26.0 °C
Max temp (day)23.6 °C 19.2–27.2
Min temp (night)16.4 °C 12.0–18.0
Precipitation95.1 mm/mo 83.9–127
Air humidity62.4 % 57.1–62.7
Moisture balance-42.2 mm/mo -61.7–7.60
Vapour deficit836 Pa 646–1,063
Wind speed3.30 m/s 1.90–3.90
Cloud cover48.2 % 28.2–54.9
CHELSA 1981–2010, ~9 km grid, at location & month of 84 detection points · median with p10–p90 · reflects where sampling happened, not only the true niche
How to read this: each dot is one detection of this species' DNA in an environmental sample. The confidence meter weighs how many independent studies and places back up the signal — one detection in one study is a hint; many across several studies is solid. Records dated before 2008 (when eDNA methods began) are treated as likely mislabeled and left off the map.
WikipediaWikimedia Foundation3 languages↗
BioWikiNetmultilingual Wikipediamultilingual↗
GBIFGlobal Biodiversity Information Facility21 816 records↗
ENAEuropean Nucleotide Archive · EMBL-EBI87 eDNA detections↗
BOLD SystemsCentre for Biodiversity Genomics86 specimens↗
Open Tree of LifeOpenTreephylogeny backbone↗
GLoBIGlobal Biotic Interactionsbiotic interactions↗