Presumably this is the capucina form of Green-brindled Crescent, although according to Waring & Townsend it should be "dark brown marked with tawny brown", with no mention of any purple hues.
So I wonder whether it is in fact the green form but with scales that are of slightly different thickness than normal for some reason resulting in purple rather than green iridescence? The photo here doesn't do it justice unfortunately as in the right light it was quite striking, almost reminiscent of Purple Emperor!
What a beautiful moth! Much looking forward to the experts’ verdict. All best M
ReplyDeleteHello Phil,
ReplyDeleteThat's unlike any form of Green-brindled Crescent I've ever seen - a very smart-looking moth! There may, of course, be other named forms which aren't listed in the field guide but the f. capucina mentioned there is quite frequent locally and appears much darker than your individual, mostly chocolate brown and often with the white angled marking mid-way along the wing trailing edge, that is so clear as the end of the white cross-line on your moth, as the only obvious distinguishing feature.
Intriguing, given the number of Green-brindled Crescents you must have seen! I'll post it on iRecord.
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