White-tipped Black Moth

Description:

Smokey grey-black moth with white tips on the ends of the forewings and with the entire thorax bright orange. About 1.5 cm long. Lands with its wings open. It is also called the Snow Bush Spanworm. Family Geometridae. http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/speci... http://www.pbase.com/image/125785262. The Looper larva is very colorful, see: http://bugguide.net/node/view/304153/bgi....

Habitat:

Came to an ultraviolet light, Finca Argovia, Ruta de Café, Soconusco Area of Chiapas, about 2 hours north of Tapachula.

Notes:

This moth is superficially similar to another one, which also came to the black light, in that they have white tips to the forewings and are of the same dark color. However, this one lands with the wings wide open, is about half a cm smaller and has a bright orange thorax. The other moth (http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/212...) lands with it's wings closed, is larger in size, more robust and has 4 orange-red spots on the black thorax. This moth is also superficially similar to another one which came to the black light (http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/208...) in that they are of similar size, color and both with a bright orange thorax. However, the other moth has partially clear wings and lacks the white tips to the forewings.