They certainly look alike, except for the shape of the shorter of those two tall projections along the midline. Markings are very similar. Another match is the posture, with wings held at an angle, when the environment is lit. (My moth spread out more in the dark.) I think the moth experts are way behind in examining images. There are so many moth photos.

I think the moth experts are doing a fine job, but there are just so many images and so many species of moths that it is overwhelming at the moment. Also, a lot of moth people specialize in a few select taxa, so some taxa (like the Plusiinae in my experience) go often unID'd, which is probably partly due to the similarity between species.

But I didn't post this comment to defend moth experts; I had just gone to bed when I remembered that you had posted a larva image of this moth, so I excitedly rushed back online to see if you had identified the host plant you had found it on, and much to my delight you had. Autoplusia egena as I had suggested earlier has the common name of "Bean-leaf skeletonizer," and the larvae are often found on Phaeolus vulgaris, according to Powell and Opler, corresponding perfectly to the pole beans you found your larva on. On top of that, Powell and Opler also note the range as extending into the San Francisco Bay area, and the season as being Summer-Fall. It almost seems like a perfect match for me; the only problem being that there are two other species in this genus which Powell and Opler do not cover, so I cannot make a valid comparison. However, Powell and Opler do explicitly state, "It may be seperated from the very similar A. egenoides and A. olivacea by a rusty tint on the forewing and by a pale crescentic patch with even margins on the FW outer margin," though even with this information I still can't see a difference between them (compare plates at MPG).

But even if I have the species wrong, I don't believe there are any live photos of any members of this genus on the internet (excluding mine), so this is a very nice find!

Phaseolus. The variety is Romano, if that helps. If this moth's larvae eat bean leaves, it's odd that I didn't see any such larvae on the leaves until that one cocooned there. I've checked the vines closely every day for harvestable pods. The occupant of the cocoon had transverse dark stripes that showed through the webbing. Do you know whether A. egena last-instar larvae look like that?

My specimen definitely had a rusty tint. The irregular-shaped reddish-brown patch at the posterior end of the wing looked metallic. However, I can't find a "pale crescentic patch."

How shrewd it was of this larva to use a fading, dropped leaf for half of its nest! By the time it came out as a moth, the leaf was curled and brown, much like itself. In the photo, it's standing on that leaf, and from a distance one could easily have missed the moth.