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Photo#57276
Chocolate Moth - Acherdoa ferraria

Chocolate Moth - Acherdoa ferraria
Grand Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve/ Grand Bay National Wildlife Refuge, Jackson County, Mississippi, USA
May 10, 2006
I'm having a little trouble with the classification of this moth; here is what I think the guide page taxonomy link should look like:

Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Winged Insects (Pterygota) » Butterflies and Moths (Lepidoptera) » Moths » Noctuoidea » Owlet Moths (Noctuidae) » Amphipyrinae » Apameini » Acherdoa » Chocolate Moth – Hodges # 9636 (Acherdoa ferraria)

According to the MPG and the Moths of Maryland sites, this is the correct subfamily and tribe. On BugGuide.net, however, Apameini is listed as a tribe under the subfamily Xyleninae. I don't know which is most recently correct. Additionally, the Moths of Georgia page lists Acherdoa ferraria in the Psaphidinae subfamily. Can anyone clear this up?

*This moth was identified by Bob Patterson

at the moment...
BugGuide is following the moth taxonomy shown at All-Leps as mentioned in the Taxonomy forum here. The people apparently "in charge" of the All-Leps taxonomic list include James Adams, Gary Anweiler, Joe Belicek, John Burns, Don Davis, Cris Guppy, Daniel Handfield, Norbert Kondla, Don Lafontaine, Jean-Francois Landry, Jeffrey Miller, Michael Pogue, Brian Scholtens, Bo Sullivan, Jim Troubridge, and Dave Wagner - according to the bottom of this page.
All-Leps places Acherdoa ferraria in the subfamily Xyleninae but hasn't decided on a tribe yet (it is "to be placed"), so I'll make a No Taxon page for it shortly, and place it there.

To paraphrase Don Lafontaine...
the higher classification of Noctuoidea is currently under study, and further changes are pending
Not to worry, though, as we can easily make additional changes as time goes on...

 
Thanks!
Thanks for clearing that up! I generally work with fish and know that the taxonomy of an organism sometimes changes as we learn more about it's life history.

 
A. ferraria
I guess this species must be uncommon or elusive, as your photo (also shown at MPG) is the only live one I could find on the web. Image moved to new species page.

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