diurnal moths from monterey california - Adela trigrapha

Moved

Moved from Adela.

… Robin McLeod, 6 May, 2009 - 6:02pm

Adela trigrapha

This most likely is Adela trigrapha, which is one of two Adela species having three white bands on the forewing, the other being A. eldorada (A. septentrionella has two bands, plus small white spots around the apical margin of the wing). See comments here (under "Adela ID") for differentiating A. trigrapha from A. eldorada.

Evidently, the forewing-marking pattern in some Adela species can vary from one population to another, and even, as this photo shows to good effect, within a single population (the middle white band on the forewing is broken in one of the individuals seen here, and entire in the other). Given that, it seems likely that the moths in this photo are within the realm of variation for A. trigrapha, and that they represent a population in which the forewing markings tend to be somewhat reduced from the typical three complete white bands of that species.

… Terry Harrison, 6 May, 2009 - 8:29am

Let's at least

move them to genus page!

… Tony-2, 27 January, 2006 - 12:01pm

Adela purpurea?

The image of that species linked to in the Internet References section of the Guide shows a full white band and two partial bands, as in your photo, but I don't know the distribution of A. purpurea

… Robin McLeod, 18 December, 2005 - 1:14pm

According to Covell,

the range of A. purpurea is Nova Scotia to New Jersey and west to Manitoba - too far north, I think, to match these. Covell's picture does not have so much white as these, either. I think they must be a different species.

… Hannah Nendick-Mason, 18 December, 2005 - 3:40pm

Adela sp?

See comparison shots here.

… Lynette Schimming, 18 December, 2005 - 12:29pm

Looks like Adela septentrionella

A neat photo, just to add to Lynette's references for Adela septentrionella, here is aother photo of Adela septentrionella, from Moths of Southern Vancouver Island, and a photo of this species in BugGuide:

Looks like that's what we've got here, a neat species, I love the antennae. (Hmm. I do see a reference to a similar species Adela trigrapha, also from California.)

Patrick Coin
Durham, North Carolina

… Cotinis, 18 December, 2005 - 10:15pm

fairy moth

Another shot labeled Adela trigrapha here but apparently there's at least 8 species of Adela in California and I could only find pics of 2 of them.
There's also a California record of Cauchas discalis reported in the Lep. Soc. summary but couldn't find photos of that either.

… Robin McLeod, 19 December, 2005 - 12:51am

Maybe Adela sp.,

sorry about the multiple posts...there's a bug in the system kicking me back to my profile, so I thought they weren't posting.

… Lynette Schimming, 18 December, 2005 - 12:28pm