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Photo#323477
Confirmed: Black Zale - Zale undularis - Zale undularis

Confirmed: Black Zale - Zale undularis - Zale undularis
East Brunswick, Middlesex County, New Jersey, USA
July 7, 2004
Size: 2" ± (maybe minus)
It really is black, not an artifact of the camera or the flash used for the shot from directly above. Found 'inside' the barbecue grill when I opened the cover shortly before 5 PM. Apparently the moth took refuge beneath the cover of the cold grill the night before. (The grill hadn't been used in many days.) Since it was daytime, the moth was a bit lethargic or disoriented at suddenly being exposed to bright light, and flew onto the backyard deck allowing for several shots. As this was 5 years ago, I might recall that the wingspan could have been a bit less than 2" but that's a long-term recollection.

After a lot of searching I cannot ID this one. Could it be a melanistic morph of a usually lighter moth?

Images of this individual: tag all
Confirmed: Black Zale - Zale undularis - Zale undularis Confirmed: Black Zale - Zale undularis - Zale undularis - Zale undularis

Moved
Moved from Moths.

Moved
Moved from ID Request.

Genus Zale--maybe a Black Zal
Genus Zale--maybe a Black Zale-but zales are hard. Take a look and see which one you think matches. ^__^

 
Possible match
First of all, thank you, Jo Ann. I went through thousands of photos to try to match this. I KNOW I went through the pages leading to this one but I guess after a long time, your eyes start to blur everything and they all look alike. I can't believe I missed it. Just goes to show that being a beginner is tough. Just have to learn more. ;-)

Yes, Black Zale - Zale undularis would seem to match but I'll wait for confirmation. The major difference is in the lighting source. The one you matched mine with was apparently daylight. My 2nd shot was daylight but from the front so it served to confirm color but not many details. The first shot I posted, from above it, was with flash and illuminated the moth slightly differently, and with great detail. But the spot on each wing matches position as do the wavy lines. Great find. Thank you. Your reference photo is here:
http://bugguide.net/node/view/43440

I just went back through the hierarchy and understand how I didn't see it. I did NOT dig deeply enough. Either I was tired or didn't think to click on some of the subcategories. Ugh, but a good learning experience.

Thanks again for solving this.
Rich

 
based on the image
yes, this has to be Zale undularis
one can never really get 100% confirmation on this site, unless you're sending the specimen to an expert for dissection and/or DNA analysis. Given that, you've got a reasonable level of information to move this on to Z. undularis. If we are incorrect, members here will hopefully correct our error. This is why the caveats are listed in the info that our ID or info may be "just plain wrong". When that happens, moderators/editors report the issue on our forum and we attempt to repair.


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