Very interesting, Monica. I am going to dissect some out of curiosity since I see them frequently. I knew yours was "out of the expected range", as were mine. Now Maury's image is the only one left as O. sexta on BG. Do you think we should move it based on the recent information????

I didn't move Maury's because I thought editor submissions were sacrosanct unless the editor moved it her/himself.

During the flurry of emails between Nanz and Lafontaine, Maury's image was sent, along with Jim Vargo's pinned, to Don. All were IDed as altura rather than sexta. And yours have all been barcoded to O. altura as well.

Don mentioned that, so far, O. sexta has only been confirmed from Cameron and Hidalgo.

He mentioned in trying to separate by image that: "The pm line in altura often has some whitish scaling along the outer margin of the pm line; however it does not diverge off as a streak bending toward the apex."

I think it was easy to misinterpret the paper's remarks about white scaling from the PM to apex: it's a thin divergent streak rather than a "bunch o' white scales".

Monica,

I have also been hesitant to move Maury's specimen. I don't think he is watching BG much now, but I will post the current information and wait a month or so before moving. That should "cover us".

Never thought to look beyond the living specimens on MPG. No wonder I couldn't find it.

Checked out the PDF listed in the info section. There's a key to the species. It seems that sexta has white scales along the costa from the medial line to just above the apex and altura doesn't. If that's valid, than mine would be sexta as the side view definitely shows the whitish scales.

Had another one a few days later and need to check its costa...

Thanks again!

Well, the identification was made for me before I began looking at the INFO pages much. Haven't thought to go back to such since BOLD had almost no specimens and I was going to send them anyway. You are way sharp! I am going to have to work on my photography for these dark ones. I get too much sheen. Your specimen is particularly well marked.