Hi Michael, The common element in most my recent moth photos (last 6 months) is that they were taken under lighting provided by a mercury vapour light bulb at night. This is unlike (I suspect) most moth photos submitted to CNM which are taken under natural light in the daytime, or at night under a non-mercury vapour light. The yellowing effect you observe may be an artefact of that fact, especially under low light conditions. I don’t think there is much yellowing effect under bright MV light. Or it may be enhanced similarly by using an iPhone under low MV light, as in this case. Most of my moth photos at night have been taken using a Canon D6 camera using a macro lens. In general though (as we discussed with Glenn Cocking recently), colour is not very reliable as a diagnostic feature because it changes so much under ambient conditions in photos, and in any case often naturally varies so much between specimens of the same species. For example, see the three photos above, which are three photos of different specimens of the same species taken under similar lighting conditions. Cheers, Ian B
Yes, orange or yellow colouring seems to be quite common in many Arctiidae; and moreover T. heminephes seems to be one of those species which is naturally quite variable in that respect anyway.
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