Halved Footman at O'Connor, ACT
Identification history
| Threnosia heminephes | 9 Apr 2018 | ibaird |
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User's notes
Attracted to MV light at night.
5 comments
MichaelBedingfield
wrote:
10 Apr 2018
Hi Ian
Your photos, as in this one, are often more yellow than others. Is there some reason for this?
Your photos, as in this one, are often more yellow than others. Is there some reason for this?
ibaird
wrote:
10 Apr 2018
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
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
donhe
wrote:
11 Apr 2018
Donald Hobern's photo shows a specimen that is more orange than these at
https://www.flickr.com/photos/dhobern/4466196084/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/dhobern/4466196084/
ibaird
wrote:
11 Apr 2018
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.
MichaelBedingfield
wrote:
11 Apr 2018
I was curious because my sighting was shades of grey and brown:
Threnosia heminephes (Halved Footman) on 9 Mar 2015
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Nearby sightings
Location information
- Coordinates 149.113297-35.259547
- Altitude 588.4m
- Places O'Connor, ACT
Sighting information
- 4 Abundance
- 8 Apr 2018 11:31 PM Recorded on
- ibaird Recorded by
Additional information
- 12mm to 25mm Animal size
Species information
- Threnosia heminephes Scientific name
- Halved Footman Common name
- Not Sensitive
- Local native
- Non-Invasive
- Up to 742m Recorded at altitude
- Machine learning
- External link More information
Record quality
- Overall Fit for scientific/research use
- Images or audio
- More than one media file
- Verified by an expert moderator
- Nearby sighting(s) of same species
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