Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada
Clickable Guide
Moths Butterflies Flies Caterpillars Flies Dragonflies Flies Mantids Cockroaches Bees and Wasps Walkingsticks Earwigs Ants Termites Hoppers and Kin Hoppers and Kin Beetles True Bugs Fleas Grasshoppers and Kin Ticks Spiders Scorpions Centipedes Millipedes

Calendar

TaxonomyBrowseInfoImagesLinksBooksData
Photo#538865
Some sort of Dolichomia - perhaps olinalis but sites vary in species for Dolis; seems the pale form is very rare?, few photos - Hypsopygia olinalis

Some sort of Dolichomia - perhaps olinalis but sites vary in species for Dolis; seems the pale form is very rare?, few photos - Hypsopygia olinalis
Rockaway Township, Morris County, New Jersey, USA
July 2, 2011
Size: small but not micro
I have no idea what this is. I looked through PFG Eastern Moths by Covell, a general insect guide, and hundreds of pages here and I just can't see to find it. I was and still am not even sure where to start. I looked mostly in Geometroidea on this site but in a couple of other sections as well.
It was just sitting there in the bright sun. Photographed it from very close from all angles and nothing disturbed it.

EDIT: It also looks a bit like Noctuoidea ยป Erebidae but I can't find anything that matches there either.

EDIT: It looks really a lot like Herculia infimbrialis of Covell only with the main parts of the wings super light instead of the stripes, like the pattern got inversed, sort of like the main wing and strip part is a negative of sample specimens. Looks like things got renamed so maybe it is sort of like a Dolichomia olinalis or like that crossed with an Ocrasa nostralis it has the light wings with dark stripes of that with the triangle tan patches at the front of the wings like the Dolichomia. Any thoughts on this?

May be female?

Images of this individual: tag all
Some sort of Dolichomia - perhaps olinalis but sites vary in species for Dolis; seems the pale form is very rare?, few photos - Hypsopygia olinalis Unknown moth - Hypsopygia olinalis

Moved
Moved from Moths.

Moved
Moved from ID Request.

I vote for
Dolichomia olinalis. You can find pale-looking individuals, like this one. I'm not an expert though, and occasionally these moths fool me.

 
Thanks. The image you link
Thanks.

The image you link to there and this one:
http://bugguide.net/node/view/450070/bgimage
are the only two that I can find that are anywhere near as light as mine.

I notice that the scientific names and number of species has ahcnaged a lot for this set of moths over the years and even today many sites seem to disagree with one another as to what the current species are. Hard to know what to make of it.

Do they know for sure that these light ones are just a seemingly rare (I have found maybe 1 light photo for every 30 dark ones) variety or might they be a different species? Has the DNA/breeding/what hatches out of a set of eggs been checked?

Anyway it seems for sure that is a Dolichomia.

Perhaps olinalis, although this site also uses thymetusalis and binodulalis as species while another site uses olinalis and infimbrialis and another onlinalis and intermedialis and moth photo uses thymetusalis (complex patterns),binodulalis (pink fringing),nostralis(tan gray fringing),olinalis (yellow fringing), and.... etc.

This site has put the two really pale ones into olinalis and moth photos has put their one pale sample there as well (well the nostralis are all pale samples but they seem to have almost no triangles at front wing). Going by this site and moth guide I guess it looks most like olinalis. Hard to say though since some placements seem a little random and some other sites have different species and criteria.

I wonder if there is a clear explanation.

Comment viewing options
Select your preferred way to display the comments and click 'Save settings' to activate your changes.