Janice J. Stiefel That's a good question, Beatriz. I assumed they were legs, but maybe someone else has a better answer. I thought the other photos I have of this species, just weren't revealing their legs. There's a reason why I entitled my moth slide program, "Masters of Display, Deception and Intrigue." Every day brings another surprise!!

I'm guessing these are "pencils", hair-like extensible processes of the (usually) abdomen, but here on the legs? They exude pheromones, and are found in some female moths. I've seen just one example, from a Pyralid, Diaphania, in Costa Rica. One of our species in this genus is called "Melonworm" and has the pencils as well--see this page, and the account at the Univ. of Florida. I did not know they occurred in other families of moths. A very neat find.

This is an, I think, reasonable hypothesis.

Patrick Coin
Durham, North Carolina

This moth is a male! In England, members of the genus Zanclognatha are commonly called "Fan-foots".

Is the kink on the antennae an indication that this is a male? Then Robin's specimen #24475 would also be a male.
What is the function of the fan legs? could it be that the male can smell the female pheromones with them? Lyn's image #27744 also seems to have feathery structures.
What about Z. pedipilalis? With that name I would expect them to have hairy legs .

a male character seen on all species in the genus. Have never seen anyone attempting to assign a function to this structure descibed by Forbes (Leps. of NY): "male antennae heavily ciliate, with a knot and tuft at about a third its length and two or three segments bearing strong claws".

Any hypotheses on the function of these structures? Are they thought to be camouflage?

Doing a search on "fan-foot" I found another good photo on this page, of Zanclognatha tarsipennalis, showing the fan-feet.

Patrick Coin
Durham, North Carolina

here