Thank you VERY much for your input. You seem to have a lot of resources and expertise.

First of all, I am SUCH an amateur that I should not be getting into this discussion. However, since you asked, I will share what I can in the way of observations.

It appears that this individual is more worn - even on the "good" wing - than I realized. The dark color below the "dipsy-doodle" PM line is almost completely worn off, the "arc" is worn too yet there is still dark color showing as a diffuse line just above the "arc".

The B. inferior in the example was so clear and beautiful that it is hard for me to make a comparison, but the spots and the "dipsy-doodle" and the speckled color do look the same.

However, the presence of the darker line just above the narrow buffy arc bothers me. The B. flaviguttalis seems to me to have the same shaped orbicular spot and buffy arc and also has a darker line just above the buffy arc. I really have a hard time with the pinned specimens, so my reading is probably flawed. Also you cannot tell about the "ground color and speckling" in the pinned specimen. I am a little biased toward more western species because I seem to have had a lot of moths at the western edge of their range.

Are there any pictures of the B. flaiguttalis or are the ones you noted as being identified in the southwestern hill country all pinned specimens?

It is odd that the Only Smokey Tetanolita that I have photographed was also photographed the same night. I will pay more attention to both of those next year.

Hope another one appears next summer. Do they have 2 broods?

Ann

It turns out that the BOLD System web site has many images of both B. inferior and B. flaviguttalis, among many others. Take a look at each of these two BOLD pages and hover your cursor over the thumbnails of each specimen to bring up a larger version to examine:
B. inferior
B. flaviguttalis
(Each is so variable, I don't think I can distinguish them.)

Hello Chuck,

I must have missed this reply. I have been going through my images and trying to move them. I am going to Frass this one unless you think it should go to Bleptina to save the comments.

I haven't learned to use BOLD - looks like I may have to spend time learning it - if possible.

I agree that I cannot distinguish them - in fact B. inferior seems to have more of a dark line than the B. flaviguttalis!

Thanks for the reference.

Ann

My main resource is MPG with its (presumably) well-determined specimens and photos. I look over all the BG images but view them with a grain of salt, especially among tough groups like the present one. I have access to a list of specimens in the U.T. collection which gives me some sense of what is present, common, or rare in that collection. It has Gillaspy's extensive collections from Brackenridge Field Lab here in Austin, as well as results of collecting efforts at Dolan Falls (Val Verde Co.) and Stengl Ranch (Bastrop Co.) among several other localities. I'm about 30 minutes from that collection (through Austin traffic), so in a pinch I can get down there and look through specimens. I have *not* yet looked through their Bleptina's, etc.

You lucky duck. A visual of a specimen would be so much more satisfactory. Thanks for sharing.

...You'd be surprised at how *small* all those specimens look after having studied dozens of images at full magnification on a computer screen! "What? Why are these all so tiny? Did you shrink them? I thought this species had an 8-inch wingspan...darn!"

When I started "mothing" I thought they would all be big - only to find out the most interesting are almost too small for me to shoot with my NEW camera. Learning is such fun!

Thanks Robert. I looked at that one too but thought my coloration was wrong. Haven't gone to BG yet, but I surely agree with you when I went back to it on MPG.

Wow, after going to BG it surely is a Bent-wing. I should have checked BG against MPG before asking for an ID. Glad to see a few people also thought of the Renias when looking at the Bent-wing.