Small Mocis - Mocis latipes

Moved

Moved from Mocis.

… Paul Dennehy, 20 March, 2016 - 6:49am

Moved

Moved from Moths.

I agree that Mocis latipes is the most likely candidate, but these are so difficult that I do not to make a species placement. Somewhere I read that there is really not a size difference on which to make a placement, they really are not small.

… A. Hendrickson, 23 January, 2016 - 6:48am

Mocis Moth Size

I measured the mesh size of the screen it was on (13.5 per inch), so the length of this guy from snout to fore-wing tip was 25 mm which would make for about a 50 mm wingspan. It would be nice if BugGuide would give FW length in addition to wingspan since not all of us kill and mount our findings, and most moths almost never sit with their wings fully spread.

… Kurt Hasselman, 27 January, 2016 - 12:17pm

I stick with Mocis latipes

I looked at my 15 Mocis latipes photos and found the measured forewing lengths listed between 20 and 22mm with a 25mm outlier. Your Mocis, Kurt, definitely is neither a marcida nor a diseverans nor a texana. That's all I can say from what I know. (Btw. I rarely take pictures of latipes now because I see them so often.)

… Peter Homann, 27 January, 2016 - 4:59pm

The reason that BG uses wingspan is because virtually all original descriptions use that measurement so the precedent was set years ago.

I cannot find the photo # of the picture where Paul Dennehy gave this quick and easy summary of how to consider the differences, but I thought it was helpful:

Mocis latipes is smaller and has a more well-defined outline to the reniform and subreniform spots.
Mocis marcida's PM line "withers away" before it reaches the inner margin of the forewing. (hence the common name)
Mocis disseverans tends to be more yellowish and have a straighter PM line and less visible AM line.
This leaves Mocis texana, which is the most likely species to be encountered north of the gulf coast states.

I just measure nose tip to wing tip and double that and feel that is accurate enough. The few Mocis I have measured all measured essentially the same - 42-43mm WS. To arrive at that measurement I catch them, chill them, then photograph them on 1/4" graph paper. That way I have a consistent frame of reference.

… A. Hendrickson, 27 January, 2016 - 1:35pm

A Mocis

I would say that this is a Mocis, perhaps a Mocis latipes which comes in a bewildering variety of pattern and color shades.

… Peter Homann, 8 January, 2016 - 9:26pm

Mocis Moth

Thanks Peter

After looking at all the Mocis moth images on BugGuide I have to agree that Mosis latipes is the most likely ID for this guy. Especially when you consider that its wing length was less than 2 cm.
And now that I think about it I'm going to measure the screen mesh size so I can calculate an exact size for this guy.

Thanks agian for your assist with this ID.

Kurt

… Kurt Hasselman, 10 January, 2016 - 10:21am

Moved

Moved from ID Request.

… Kyhl Austin, 8 January, 2016 - 7:52pm