Furcatrox procera

Ochre-rimmed Cape-moth at O'Connor, ACT

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Identification history

	Furcatrox procera	28 Mar 2020	donhe
	Furcatrox procera	27 Mar 2020	ibaird

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User's notes

Attracted to UV Lepiled light at night.

4 comments

ibaird wrote:

28 Mar 2020

Moths of Victoria (MoV) Part 5 provides detailed guidelines and a visual key for Furcatrox species on the disc accompanying Part 5. According to Furcatrox2.pdf I am suggesting this sighting is one of three named species, either F. procera, F. serrula or F. pervaga because these 3 species show an ochre coloured costa with dark markings which is visible on this specimen. I suggest its probabaly F. procera because the discal wing spot is distinct, not faint and is black, not red-brown in colour. Further, of these three species, Bold Systems shows only F. procera as having a mainland rather than a Tasmanian distribution which is characteristic of all except two named species i.e (F. synclera and F. procera).

GlennCocking wrote:

2 May 2020

I’m doubtful about Furcatrox. They are generally plain dull grey scaled moths with a few darker markings, but with the colourful patterned costae. There are other species in the early part of the Ennominae taxonomy have colourful patterned costae and with forewing scaling that is richer coloured, more like this photo. They include Cassythaphaga macarta and Amelora nephodes, arotraea and catacris. These Amelora have light hindwings, I think more so than Furcatrox, but I’m not sure how white the hindwings in this flash photo would be in real life. My best fit would be Amelora nephodes, but this is far from a confident identification.

donhe wrote:

2 May 2020

No Amelora nephodes in the Checklist, AFD, ALA or BOLD ?

ibaird wrote:

2 May 2020

In suggesting Furcatrox I was persuaded by the overall shape of the forewing with its distinct ''shoulder' to the line of the costa near the base and the slightly wavy forewing and hindwing margins - the wavy feature being present in the Furcatrox species on the ALA and Bold Systems 4, but not it seems to me, present in the Amelora species I can see online. I was struck by the similarity of my specimen with the forewing pattern visible for F. procera on the Furcatrox2.pdf. While F. procera was not a named species with photos on the ALA there were specimens visible on Bold Systems 4. A further supporting feature for me was the distinct fine detail of wavy wing margins which shows fine double parallel lines on the wing margins - a feature present in this specimen and for F. procera on Bold Systems 4. I don't think the forewing markings match the pattern of the Cassythaphaga/Amelora macarta specimens I can see online.

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