Identification
Guide to the Adults of the Species of Tribe Platyptiliini in the Eastern United States and Canada
Includes species occurring from Ontario, Minnesota, and Louisiana to the Atlantic Coast
Timothy Reichard, July 2024, BugGuide draft in progress.
The following key uses adult characters that are often discernible in photo records with good photography.
1a. Forewing first lobe broader, about half as wide as long. Continue to 2.
1b. Forewing first lobe more slender, about one third as wide as long. If the forewing second lobe covers the first lobe, the forewing is pale grayish brown, irrorated with whitish, and the first and second lobe terminal fringes are pale with conspicuous black spots. Continue to 17.
2a. Forewing second lobe terminal fringe doubly notched into three shallow lobes, checkered with black. Hindwing third lobe dorsal fringe with scattered dark scales and a subapically or apically positioned dark scale tooth. Continue to 3.
Note: The subapical position of a hindwing third lobe is near 3/4 the lobe length and about as far from the wing base as the forewing discal spot at 1/3 wing length, while the medial position of a hindwing third lobe is at half the lobe length, closer to the base, and about as far from it as the forewing fold spot at 1/5 wing length. This fact may help assess the dark scale tooth position when the forewing of a live specimen partially obscures the full length of the hindwing third lobe.
2b. Forewing second lobe terminal fringe even or waved, but not doubly notched and usually not checkered with black. Hindwing third lobe dorsal fringe with or without a dark scale tooth, which if present, is variously positioned medially to subapically. Continue to 6.
3a. Metathorax cream on dorsum and sides. Abdomen unspotted and paler in basal segments, becoming browner and gaining a single dorsal row of dark spots on posterior segments, the dark spots sometimes continued as diverging subdorsal streaks. Abdominal segment four without dark brown lateral patches. Continue to 4.
3b. Abdomen either dark brown, contrasting against white lateral patches on the metathorax, or pale brown, with contrasting, dark brown lateral patches on segment four. Continue to 5.
4a. Abdominal segment seven with dark ventral scale tufts, visible in a ventral or lateral view.
Stenoptilodes brevipennis female
Note: These two species are usually not reliably distinguished in photo records, except for
Stenoptilodes brevipennis females as above. If the adult can be sexed as a female without the dark ventral scale tufts, then the determination is a
Stenoptilodes taprobanes female. Males are externally indistinguishable.
5a. Forewing blackish brown, contrasting with the forewing first lobe antemedial area, which is buffy brown grading to white at the costa. Metathorax with contrasting white lateral patches. Abdomen concolorous with forewing, without contrasting, dark brown lateral patches on segment four. Hindwing third lobe dorsal fringe with a subapical dark scale tooth.
Anstenoptilia marmarodactyla
5b. Forewing first lobe antemedial area and metathorax not strongly contrasting with forewing ground color. Abdomen light brown with contrasting, dark brown lateral patches on segment four. Hindwing third lobe dorsal fringe with an apical dark scale tooth.
Lantanophaga pusillidactylus
6a. Hindwing third lobe dorsal fringe with a large, triangular, postmedial dark scale tooth. Forewing and abdomen usually gray to grayish brown with numerous intermixed black and white scales, and a black costal triangular patch before the forewing cleft. Metathorax dark like the forewing and the abdomen and with conspicuous, white lateral lines nearly connected across the dorsum.
Amblyptilia pica
6b. Hindwing third lobe dorsal fringe with a dark scale tooth variously positioned medially to subapically or absent; if present, the forewing and abdomen have different dorsal color patterns. Metathorax pale to white and nearly immaculate, contrasting with darker and/or well marked abdominal segments after the first. Continue to 7.
7a. Forewing ground color buff to white with darker brown patches all blurry, including a blurry brown costal triangular patch before the cleft base and brown surrounding a long buff to white patch in the cell. Hindwing third lobe dorsal fringe with or without a small medial dark scale tooth. Abdomen brownish buff with a darker brown mid-dorsal stripe.
Gillmeria pallidactyla
7b. Hindwing third lobe dorsal fringe with a medial or subapical dark scale tooth, sometimes absent. Forewing and abdominal patterns otherwise. Continue to 8.
8a. Hindwing third lobe dorsal fringe with a dark scale tooth positioned medially, usually present. If absent, the forewing and abdomen are white-powdered gray, and the abdominal segments have white posterior margins. Continue to 9.
8b. Hindwing third lobe dorsal fringe with a dark scale tooth positioned subapically, usually present. If absent, the abdomen has a different pattern, and either the costal triangular patch before the forewing cleft base is prominent, or the forewing first lobe has a contrasting, oblique, dark brown medial bar. Continue to 11.
9a. Forewing and abdomen white-powdered gray, the abdominal segments with white posterior margins. Forewing costal triangular patch present and not sharply defined, followed by a thin white line. Hindwing third lobe dorsal fringe with a small, medial dark scale tooth, sometimes absent.
Platyptilia tesseradactyla
See this
iNaturalist record for a live adult image.
9b. Forewing with a sharply defined costal triangular patch before the cleft base. Metathorax and abdominal segments one and two pale, segments three and four with dark lateral patches, often continued across the dorsum as two conspicuous chevrons, and subsequent segments ochreous brown or dark brown. Hindwing third lobe dorsal fringe with a large, medial, triangular dark scale tooth. Continue to 10.
10a. Forewing and abdominal ground color pale ochreous with contrasting, dark brown markings.
Platyptilia carduidactylus
10b. Forewing and abdominal ground color pale brown with less conspicuous, dark blackish brown markings.
Platyptilia comstocki
11a. Hindwing third lobe dorsal fringe with a large, subapical, dark brown scale tooth, the basal half of the lobe and its apex contrastingly white. Forewing tricolored in high contrast: light ochreous brown ground color, dark brown in middle third, and with both an interrupted, oblique, white antemedial band and a complete, white transverse band at the cleft base, both prominent.
Cnaemidophorus rhododactyla
11b. Hindwing third lobe dorsal fringe with a small or obsolete, subapical dark scale tooth, the basal half of the lobe and its apex not contrasting. Forewing pattern various and without these prominent white bands. Continue to 12.
12a. Forewing powdery grayish brown with a conspicuous, oblique, dark brown bar between oblique white bands in the first lobe.
Paraplatyptilia petrodactylus
See this
iNaturalist record for a mounted adult image.
12b. Forewing variously colored and with a different pattern in the first lobe. Continue to 13.
13a. Forewing second lobe medial area with two dark longitudinal triangular or trapezoidal patches, usually sharply defined.
Paraplatyptilia auriga, Paraplatyptilia watkinsi
Note: These two species are not reliably distinguished in photo records. Known diagnostic characters for these two species are in the female genitalia.
See this
iNaturalist record for a live adult image and another
iNaturalist record for a dissected male adult.
13b. Forewing second lobe medial area without dark longitudinal triangular or trapezoidal patches. Continue to 14.
14a. Forewing ground color ochreous. Forewing first lobe medial area concolorous with or hardly darker than the rest of the lobe and followed by an inconspicuous white postmedial line. Forewing with or without a dark triangular costal patch before the cleft base.
Paraplatyptilia carolina
14b. Forewing ground color ochreous brown to gray brown. Forewing first lobe medial area darker than rest of lobe and followed by a conspicuous white postmedial line. Forewing with a dark triangular costal patch before the cleft base. Continue to 15.
15a. Forewing ground color ochreous brown.
Paraplatyptilia sabourini
See a
paratype specimen at Moth Photographers Group.
15b. Forewing ground color buff brown to grayish brown. Continue to 16.
16a. Hindwing third lobe dorsal fringe with a dark scale tooth positioned subapically. Wingspan longer than 20 mm.
Paraplatyptilia edwardsii
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iNaturalist record for a live adult image.
16b. Hindwing third lobe dorsal fringe without a dark scale tooth. Wingspan shorter than 20 mm.
Paraplatyptilia atlantica
17a. Metathorax white, contrasting with the dark brown color of the wings, the rest of the thorax, and the abdomen. Hindwing third lobe dorsal fringe with a subapical dark scale tooth. Abdominal segments two and three with incurved white subdorsal lines, followed by parallel lateral lines on segment four.
Michaelophorus indentatus
17b. Wings, thorax, and abdomen with a lighter ground color, the metathorax not contrasting. Hindwing third lobe dorsal fringe without a dark scale tooth. Abdominal ground color much paler and with a different pattern. Continue to 18.
18a. Forewing costa with a series of dark brown, white, and dark brown bars from near the cleft base to the middle of the first lobe, the last two bars usually restricted to the costa. Forewing second lobe often held above and covering much of the first lobe. Abdomen pale brown to whitish with darker brown mid-dorsal, subdorsal, and lateral longitudinal lines, each line including a small, dark spot on the posterior margin of most segments.
Lioptilodes albistriolatus
18b. Forewing either with one or two dark transverse bands originating at the costa and extending to the cleft base and/or across the first lobe medial area, or lacking these bands, though a dark bar in the posterior half of the first lobe medial area is sometimes present. Forewing second lobe usually held adjacent to and not covering the first lobe. Abdominal pattern reversed, the mid-dorsal, subdorsal, and lateral longitudinal lines paler, and with intervening areas darker brown or gray and including a dark spot on the posterior margin of most segments. Continue to 19.
19a. Forewing first lobe medial area with an oblique bar darker than the ground color and followed by a thin, white postmedial line. Continue to 20.
19b. Forewing first lobe medial area with an oblique white bar lighter than the ground color or without an oblique bar, and without a thin, white postmedial line. Continue to 21.
20a. Forewing first lobe medial area with a well defined, conspicuous, oblique dark bar, sometimes connected to a dark bar on costa by a brown medial band. Forewing with two dark dots before cleft base, often included in another brown band extending to the costa.
Stenoptilia exclamationis, Stenoptilia coloradensis
Note: There are unresolved taxonomic issues regarding the identity and species limits of these two species-rank taxa (Landry, 1987).
20b. Forewing without either brown band, the first lobe medial area with a less defined and less conspicuous, grayish brown oblique bar.
Stenoptilia mengeli
21a. Forewing light brown to grayish brown, powdered with white. Forewing first lobe medial area with an oblique white bar, often followed by a oblique, thin dark line.
Stenoptilia pallistriga
21b. Forewing gray brown toward costa, tawny brown toward inner margin. Forewing first lobe medial area without an oblique white bar.
Stenoptilia zophodactylus
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LepiForum record with a live adult image.
