I initially recorded this as Clouded Drab, but on looking at the images later, I wondered whether it is in fact Lead-coloured Drab. The feathering on the antennae seems a bit prominent for the former, but perhaps not prominent enough for the latter? So I'm unsure, but leaning towards populeti.
Phil T
Hello Phil,
ReplyDeleteThe female of Lead-coloured Drab also has bipectinate antennae but they are nowhere near as obvious as those of the male, so I suspect that's what we're looking at here. The general colour and shape of the moth seem good to me for Lead-coloured, especially with that pair of small black marks on the outer cross-line.
Thanks Dave,
ReplyDeletePhil
Hi both, forgive me for asking but while this moth is rather worn, it does have some of the looks also of Clouded Drab; viz. elongated shape with a rather angled apex (isn't L-cD more rounded?) and the subterminal line has dark internal marks at the costa as well as centrally (costal marks usually not present on L-cD?). In CD the dark central markings on the sub-terminal line usually appear as smeared but can sometimes look like a pair of marks (separated by a pale vein) so this might be more difficult to use as a distinction (and only on the right wing of this specimen - smeared on the left wing)? Pectination on the male CD should be 'less than twice the width of the antenna shaft'.
ReplyDeleteHi John,
ReplyDeleteRegarding the pectinations, I am guessing that your quote "Pectination on the male CD should be 'less than twice the width of the antenna shaft'." comes from the British Lepidoptera site? However I wonder whether that is not a bit misleading?
Certainly the images of the CD antenna there show pectinations which are no more than half the width of the shaft; so yes, less than twice the width, but actually substantially less. Twice the width would be very obvious and I would have though visible to the naked eye?
Having measure my image I would say that the longest of the pectinations are ~1.5x the diameter of the shaft. Again, based on British Lepidoptera images, populeti female has no visible pectinations, but those of the male are very prominent and appear to be at least twice the diameter of the shaft. So perhaps what we have here is a worn populeti?
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ReplyDeleteHi Phil, my comment on the width of the pectinations of Clouded Drab came from Vol.9 of the 'Moths and Butterflies of GB & Ireland', which also notes the various colour forms that this moth can take (including pale grey).
ReplyDeleteAh I see. I imagine that's where the quote on British Lepidoptera originated then. You may have see that I posted a new image which looks a lot more like CD!
ReplyDelete