First of all, thank you, Jo Ann. I went through thousands of photos to try to match this. I KNOW I went through the pages leading to this one but I guess after a long time, your eyes start to blur everything and they all look alike. I can't believe I missed it. Just goes to show that being a beginner is tough. Just have to learn more. ;-)

Yes, Black Zale - Zale undularis would seem to match but I'll wait for confirmation. The major difference is in the lighting source. The one you matched mine with was apparently daylight. My 2nd shot was daylight but from the front so it served to confirm color but not many details. The first shot I posted, from above it, was with flash and illuminated the moth slightly differently, and with great detail. But the spot on each wing matches position as do the wavy lines. Great find. Thank you. Your reference photo is here:
http://bugguide.net/node/view/43440

I just went back through the hierarchy and understand how I didn't see it. I did NOT dig deeply enough. Either I was tired or didn't think to click on some of the subcategories. Ugh, but a good learning experience.

Thanks again for solving this.
Rich

yes, this has to be Zale undularis
one can never really get 100% confirmation on this site, unless you're sending the specimen to an expert for dissection and/or DNA analysis. Given that, you've got a reasonable level of information to move this on to Z. undularis. If we are incorrect, members here will hopefully correct our error. This is why the caveats are listed in the info that our ID or info may be "just plain wrong". When that happens, moderators/editors report the issue on our forum and we attempt to repair.