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Malacosoma
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Western Tent Caterpillar - Hodges#7702 (Malacosoma californica)
Photo#635893
Copyright © 2012
Randy Hardy
Moth -
Malacosoma californica
Tucson, Pima County, Arizona, USA
April 16, 2012
Size: wingspan 29mm
Images of this individual:
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Contributed by
Randy Hardy
on 1 May, 2012 - 3:56pm
incurva
In my opinion, this specimen better matches
incurva
than any variation of
californica
. In Stehr's revision, he states regarding a species he refers to as ssp.
Malacosoma incurvum incurvum
(pg. 173), that it is "dark chocolate-brown" and that both males and females can be with or without indentations in their AM/PM lines, sometimes indented (having dentation) so much so that they can meet along vein Cu2.
That, along with the fact this specimen has no blending of orangish scaling mixed within the brown, gives me good reason to think this is
incurva
. Even the darkest
californica
specimens always have some degree of paler, orangish scaling blended throughout. So I think there's a good chance we've got an
incurva
here, especially in your location where
californica
becomes less common.
If you'd be willing to part with the specimen, you could send it to BOLD and see what the DNA sequence tells us. If you want to keep it, maybe they'll let you send in just a couple of legs.
…
Jason D. Roberts
, 14 May, 2016 - 2:58am
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