Does the white band on the forewing top surrounding the black/yellow spot help for ID of the nevada type vs maia?

Thanks for your quick response also!

I think I read that it might help tell them apart, but I just took some photos of some definite H. maia and the front spot was almost totally enclosed. The pattern differences of that sort seem pretty subtle and maybe unreliable for these moths. The best info is the fact that yours is in Wisconsin and on willow, while mine is in Louisiana and on oak.

Here's mine:

This is proabably an individual from the Hemileuca great lakes complex which is I believe H. nevadensis to an extant. Willow would almost deffinately confirm something along the lines of H. nevadensis rather than maia. Also maia are very variable in the wing bands. Mark, I've read (and witnessed) that maia from LA usually have much thinner forewing bands than their norther counterparts.

is a name I have come across today. I cannot find details on specie ID. Its listed in several wisconsin publications as Hemileuca Sp 3. This publication lists it as Hemileuca Sp Nov.

http://www.epa.gov/ecopage/glbd/issues/table1.pdf

Can anyone clarify the above?

The area I photographed it has an established Karner Blue population, and Mottled Duskywing population (uncommon in most of wisconsin).

Well, sp nov is short for species novum or some such latin for "new species that doesn't have a name yet". So if you want to determine whether yours is a midwestern fen buckmoth, you'd have to track down whoever discovered the new species. That would be super cool!

Yeah, that would be very cool. Hemlieuca maia and nevadensis complex is very complicated and interesting.

Red tip = male.