Guardian Nature School Team Contact Blog Project Noah Facebook Project Noah Twitter

A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife

Join Project Noah!
nature school apple icon

Project Noah Nature School visit nature school

Spotting

2 Species ID Suggestions

Gaia80
Gaia80 4 years ago
Yellow Tail Tussoc Moth
Somena scintillans Somena scintillans · iNaturalist.org
tussock moth
Nygmia epirotica Nygmia epirotica


Sign in to suggest organism ID

6 Comments

Saturniidae27
Saturniidae27 4 years ago

It might be (somena similis) only because every single specimen looks the same as the one in this spotting. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations...

Gaia80
Gaia80 4 years ago

I did both searches, but my suggestion also produces pics where the black pattern meet the rear end of the forewings, we might be both wrong with our suggestions. But I searched the website I used for my suggestion for similar species misidentified as Somena scintillans and found this one https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/124255-... it could be a case of these species often being misidentified as each other by hasty entomologists. I know I made that mistake several times before and are probably still doing it sometimes, though I try to limit my mistakes.

Saturniidae27
Saturniidae27 4 years ago

I think Gaia80 found the correct ID for this moth.Because if you search up Somena scintillans on google search it looks exactly the same, but if you search up Nygmia epirotica it has a black dot on the blotch of yellow going down it's main vein near the thorax on both forewings.Obviously there will be some genetic differences between every specimen,but as I observed there is a big difference between Somena scintillans and Nygmia epirotica. Here is some links to check out to find out the difference.https://www.google.com/search?q=Nygmia+epirotica&rlz=1CAPPDO_enUS851&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj7mpOaoPTjAhVSXc0KHVckCccQ_AUIEigD&biw=1366&bih=641 https://www.google.com/search?q=somena+s...

Gaia80
Gaia80 4 years ago

That's weird, maybe it's the same species named twice. Or maybe it's some genetic differences that could only be determined in a lab. They look very alike, however I find ornithoptera80s suggestion to be a tiny bit more yellow on the torso. But that could also be a color variation. I honestly don't know.

Ornithoptera80
Ornithoptera80 4 years ago

I'm not sure the both species are very similar consider both of the ID's

Raksha
Raksha 4 years ago

Thanks for the suggestion Gaia80 and Ornithoptera80. The photos are matching with both the links, so which is the right one ? :)

Raksha
Spotted by
Raksha

Kerala, India

Spotted on Aug 7, 2019
Submitted on Aug 7, 2019

Nearby Spottings

Large lace border moth Spotting Spotting Hand maiden moth
Noah Guardians
Noah Sponsors
join Project Noah Team

Join the Project Noah Team