Species Hellinsia homodactylus - Plain Plume Moth - Hodges#6203

Classification

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)

Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)

Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)

Class Insecta (Insects)

Order Lepidoptera (Butterflies and Moths)

Superfamily Pterophoroidea (Plume Moths)

Family Pterophoridae (Plume Moths)

Subfamily Pterophorinae (Five-lobed Plume Moths)

Tribe Oidaematophorini

Genus Hellinsia

Species homodactylus (Plain Plume Moth - Hodges#6203)

Identification

Both Hellinsia homodactylus and H. elliottii have a pure white ground color on the wings, thorax, and abdomen, without the pale yellow, buff, or tan shading of many related species. For photo records, one must ensure that the midtibia scale structure details show well and that the dorsal view of the moth is not overexposed nor washed out with a flash, so that the true ground color can be confirmed as white.

H. homodactylus and H. elliottii can be distinguished by their different midtibia scale structures (Barnes & Lindsey 1921: 416-421) or by genitalia (Hunt & Matthews 2020: 71). In H. elliottii, the midtibia has two scale tufts of similar size and shape: one medial tuft and one apical tuft just before the tarsus. In H. homodactylus, there is no medial tuft, but there is a fringe of scales along the inner surface of the midtibia. Forewing markings of both species are variable and often lacking, making their use unreliable for species ID.

In the southeastern US, there is another white species, H. habecki, with a more prominent, oblique dark bar from the forewing cleft spot to the costa and with the hindwing ground color contrastingly darker than that of the white forewing (Matthews 2010). This species has midtibia tufts similar to those of H. elliottii and may not always be distinguishable in live photos where their ranges overlap.