Lepidoptera unclassified ADULT moth

Unidentified - Moth at Ainslie, ACT

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Identification history

Smyriodes undescribed species nr aplectaria	7 Jan 2022	donhe
Lepidoptera unclassified ADULT moth	22 Dec 2020	GlennCocking
Uraba lugens	21 May 2020	jb2602

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15 comments

jb2602 wrote:

21 May 2020

Male, feather antennae and smaller than the female

ibaird wrote:

21 May 2020

Not sure this is U. lugens. There is a distinct scallop patterned margin to the forewings and a short mid line at each forewing tip which I can't see in our other U. lugens specimens.

donhe wrote:

21 May 2020

The shape and posture look good to me for Nolinae, but I think the shapes of the zigzag transverse lines, and the absence of the smoothly curved dark central band, look wrong for Uraba lugens.

GlennCocking wrote:

27 May 2020

Could it be an extremely plain Dysbatus specimen? I have seen some without the usual transverse wiggly lines, and the line towards the fw tip the Ian points to would satisfy Dysbatus. John, were the originals as grey as these photos rather than a little brown? Do you have an upperside photo of the male?

jb2602 wrote:

27 May 2020

These photos are the dorsal and ventral side of the same moth. It has feather antennae and so I assume it's a male. My understanding is that a female U. lugens is quite a bit longer than the male (No female was sighted on the night). I really don't know what it is but thought that a male U. lugens was a possibility.

jb2602 wrote:

27 May 2020

The photos were taken close up with a 100mm macro lens with a ring flash, slightly off centre to avoid reflection and so should be fairly accurate.

jb2602 wrote:

27 May 2020

What about Nola desmotes?

ibaird wrote:

27 May 2020

I say not N. desmotes because of the scallop patterned margin to the forewings and a short mid line at each forewing tip which no images of that species on the ALA show.

jb2602 wrote:

27 May 2020

Also N. desmotes does not have feather antennae. Is that the case for all Nola?

GlennCocking wrote:

18 Oct 2020

Nola males generally have finely bipectinate or hairy antennae. This branches on this one are much stronger. I think they also look unipectinate, which matches Dysbatus. But that would still be a speculative identification.

donhe wrote:

18 Oct 2020

I think that the double arch in the basal line is inconsistent with Dysbatus, and the line at the forewing tip is inconsistent with most Nola. Groan.

ElluraSanctuary wrote:

7 Jan 2022

This has bipectinate antennae, you can just make it out on the ventral shot if you zoom in.
Is it not a faded Smyriodes trigramma? Looks close to ours. We *think* we've had a number of them and progressive variations from the strong to "faded" has the longitudinal lines at the back of our faded one; S4 in particular. :
www.ellura.info/Lepidoptera.html#Smyriodes-trigramma
www.ellura.info/Insect/Moth/DSC06582E-Stippled-Line-moth-Smyriodes-trigramma--S4.html
We are in SA, so hope it's ok to share our obs like this

ibaird wrote:

7 Jan 2022

Hi, Ellura Sanctuary. You are welcome to share you views etc, re identification. We have grouped together probably three Smyriodes species to gether in one category : ie. ''Smyriodes undescribed species nr aplectaria' ( - the undescribed species being the most common here). However, the short mid-line on the forewing tip either side concerns me an seems inconsistent with Smyriodes (genus).

jb2602 wrote:

7 Jan 2022

Thank you all very much for the input, I have added a detail of an antenna if that helps.

ElluraSanctuary wrote:

7 Jan 2022

Much easier to see the bi-pectinations now John, nice job.
No prob's Ian. I agree the line on the wing tip is an issue, but thought it worth raising the thought.
I'll have to reconsider mine now ;-)
Cheers
Brett

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