Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada
Photo#76811
Petrophila fulicalis

Petrophila fulicalis
Bartlesville, Washington County, Oklahoma, USA
September 12, 2006
Came to UV light at night. I would appreciate check of my ID

Moved
Moved from Heppner's Petrophila. See my long-winded explanation on this observation.

Moved
Moved from Ozark Petrophila. After reviewing dozens of additional images and re-reading Munroe's original description, this moth is clearly not Ozark/Hodges' Petrophila. The location is ecologically most connected to the Cross Timbers Region southward into Texas and thus I place this with Heppner's Petrophila, the Texas representative of the fulicalis-species group. Heppner's and Feather-edged (P. fulicalis) are exceedingly difficult to separate except by range, the latter occuring primarily east of the Mississippi River.

Moved

 
Still considering this example
Despite my comments below, there are some details of this particular moth that don't line up well with Ozark (Hodges') Petrophila. There are also some very interesting bioecological considerations here based on the specific locality. Several aspects of the ecology of the area around Bartlesville, OK, are actually more closely related to the Cross Timbers biotic province (which extends south into Texas) than they are to the (nearby) Ozark province. It may turn out that this moth is actually an example of Heppner's Petrophila, the Texas-Oklahoma representative of the fulicalis-species group. I'm working hard on examining all available imagery, barcoding results, etc., and am preparing my next Petrophila paper which will address this group.

Possibly P. hodgesi
Occurring in the n.e. part of OK, near the edge of the Ozark ecological region, this is likely to represent Hodges' (or as I like to call it, the Ozark) Petrophila. This is the regional representative of the "fulicalis-species group". Most members of this group, which includes fulicalis (n.e. US), santafealis (Florida), hodgesi (Ozarks), heppneri (Texas), and confusalis (West Coast), are virtually indistinguishable by pattern--I'm still working on that--but their ranges don't overlap. True fulicalis apparently occurs only E of the Mississippi River. They are all fairly close genetically (e.g. barcodes) as well.

Petrophila species
is my guess; close to P. fulicalis shown at MPG, but note that Troy's image on that page has been IDed by Brian Scholtens as Eoparargyractis irroratalis here at BugGuide (and I think the photo by Darryl Searcy looks much like Troy's).

 
Thanks again for help on thes
Thanks again for help on these things.

 
Thanks For Catching the Error...
... this photo looks like 4777 - Feather-edged Petrophila Moth - Petrophila fulvicalis to me. I'll try to get Brian Scholtens to look at all the photos ASAP.

 
Petrophila fulicalis
...the triangular pattern of three indistinct dark spots on the forewing seems like a good feature; it matches the photos linked to in the Guide, and other markings agree well also. Image moved from ID Request to new species page.