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Photo#1517003
Hodges 5476 - Diatraea crambidoides? - Diatraea crambidoides

Hodges 5476 - Diatraea crambidoides? - Diatraea crambidoides
Tallahassee, Leon County, Florida, USA
May 5, 2018
Size: Length ≈18mm
Attracted to black light. Initially I had been looking for help regarding criteria that distinguish Eoreuma densellus from Diatraea evanescens and decided that the key might be the veins of the forewing. However, as is discussed below, this became irrelevant when I realized that I had been on the wrong track.

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Hodges 5476 - Diatraea crambidoides? - Diatraea crambidoides Hodges #54975/5476? - Diatraea crambidoides

Moved
Moved from Diatraea.

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Duplicate comment deleted.

Diatraea crambidoides
DNA barcoding (BOLD-3MQT9GYW7) revealed 100% matches with the three published sequences of #5476 Diatraea crambidoides available to BOLD, and matches of 100% and 99.02% with sequences of #5479 D. grandiosella, their sample status being listed as "private" and as "Early-Release", resp.. I decided to disregard these two samples, mindful also that, as far as I can tell, Diatraea grandiosella lacks the narrow gray bands across its forewings that my moth has. One other Diatraea species that has such bands is #5475 D. saccharalis of which BOLD has sequenced more than 100 specimens. However, apparently there is no close match of any of the sequences with the three D. crambidoides sequences.

Diatraea crambidoides?
Dyar and Heinrich [here] list the wingspans of D. saccharalis as 18-28mm for males and 27-39mm for females, and of D. crambidoides (under the obsolete name D. zeacolella) as 24-36mm for males and 29-42mm for females, and they consider size a valid criterion to distinguish between the two species. Based on the length of 18mm I measured of my moth (without palps), I favor D. crambidoides as its ID but, considering the overlap of the size ranges and my presumably somewhat imprecise measurement, I cannot be certain.

Moved

D. crambidoides or saccharalis
I now favor #5475 Diatraea saccharalis or #5476 D. crambidoides as ID for this moth because moths shown in BugGuide and MPG for these species share with my moth the forewing's two (albeit more distinct) gray-shaded narrow bands that begin on the forewing's costa inside the apex and curve towards the inner margin. Some D evanescens moths posted in BugGuide have those lines (e.g. this one) but they may be in the wrong place.

Moved
Moved from ID Request.

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