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Beautiful, dark moth. Scalloped edge to wings. Warm browns, black, reddish and hints of purple with two white spots. Ridge of raised scales along the dorsal abdomen. Genus Zale.
Suburban area with bordering field, vegetation and drainage ditch. Attracted to floodlights at night.
This could be one of a couple of species.
Z. obliqua is one of the options.
However..There are a couple of other species that do seem to have the white spots and similar patterning, like Z. confusa or Z. buchholzi.
I couldn't find any other similar looking Zales in all of MPG. Z. obliqua has the white spots and the lighter brown patches on its wings. This one is surely darker than the photos on MPG, but shade can be quite variable.
Hi Joshua, are there certain features that helped you determine that it is Zale obliqua vs. other similar looking Zales?
Spotted on Apr 15, 2015
Submitted on Jun 3, 2015
