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Project Noah Nature School
Amata sp.
This wasp moth has black hairy thorax, orange head with black eyes. Its wings are black with translucent yellow-orange spots. It has black and orange-yellow bands on its body. It has white antennae tips. Matching image from Queensland Australia, but species has not been IDd also: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/OCp....
Backyard garden, spotted on a white ginger lily plant.
Compared with Syntomis symphona (Swinhoe, 1907), the wing pattern is a match but the abdomen stripes are not. http://www.mothsofborneo.com/part-6/synt....
Spotted on Sep 9, 2012
Submitted on Nov 20, 2012
![[g] Amata - mating](https://lh5.ggpht.com/6CLt1c74FWbLG9HU9ZZI7zPT0hyj1r3Pgld_4wTQF95aiEG-5m23RTYL69LKwWnmRk86XsXnbsuyL8wM5M4=s62-c)
29 Comments (1–25)
Thanks for looking bayucca. I'll revisit other Philippines wasp moth genera. Regards!
Take #3 of Boldsystems: Looks completely different to yours with the below mentioned stripes/spots. I agree they look close but not equal, so I still tend to yours not being Aperta, sorry. Your other one (and some others from the Philippines on PN) might be the same as this one.
Hi bayucca... Pls check pic#1 of Boldsystems, and pics 4 and 5 of lepbarcoding.
Also, some of the samples match my other spotting: http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/165.... Pls take a peek as well. Thanks much!
Hmm, look at the two stripes at the tip of the forewing. In yours 2, #1 a little bit shorter, in Aperta there is #1 large one and #2 is only a spot. So it is not Amata aperta.
@bayucca.. I found pattern matching Amata aperta (http://www.boldsystems.org/index.php/Tax..., http://www.lepbarcoding.org/australia/sp...). Problems: 1. This is an Australian moth, no record in the Philippines, and 2. samples antennae tips do not look like white.
It could be new Shekai, but the distribution is Luzon and Visayas, basing alone from PN spottings. I have seen two blogsites with pictures very closely resembling this. The tiger moths were tagged as Amata sp. and they were both seen in Australia. I am continuing my search and hopefully get an answer :) btw, would you happen to know an entomologist in your circle of friends who could help ID this? :) Regards!
Must be a special new subspecies.
OK, back to field #1. Let's continue with Amata.
Hello bayucca.. wing patterns/body of pics in the net do not match, also did not find any Caeneressa sp. distribution in the Philippines.
Thanks bayucca. Taking a look now.
Try once if you find something about Caeneressa...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Caener...
I am not really happy with this one, but before getting desesperate it is worth a try...
There's other reference to it, but no other picture. :( Unfortunately also, the picture in the Borneo site cannot be enlarged. Borneo is just a neighboring area.
I am not sure. Symphona is reported from Borneo, but not otherwhere. I can't see all the details. Could it be that my eyes see only 2 stripes on the body?? In this case yours is unfortunately not Symphona. I couldn't found any other reference for Symphona on the web.
@bayucca, I think I got it - Amata symphona (Swinhoe, 1907). The wing pattern is a match here: http://www.mothsofborneo.com/part-6/synt.... Good reference also for Subfamily Syntominae: http://www.mothsofborneo.com/part-6/synt....
Looks like almost all similar PN Philippine spottings are affected. The species seems common in the Philippines, but even in the forums and blogsites, no exact ID can be found. Sad.
Hi bayucca.. I saw your discussion in this spotting - http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/102... (Syntomeida ipomoeae name not yet corrected, I believe). Very minimal wing pattern differences compared with my spotting. I tried genus Ceryx, but still no match..
Unfortunately, there's still some variances in the wing pattern. So, still no match. :(
Hi bayucca.. Got something from this site - http://www.globaltwitcher.com/gallery.as.... It says it is an Amata hirayamae sighted in the Philippines. I'm now looking for a corroborating site.
Oh.. Thanks bayucca for looking into this.. I am checking now some articles of tiger moth sightings in the Philippines and being IDd as Amata sp. nr. heubneri. Will check into that. Thanks again!.
Unfortunately I can give aou another suggestion. In the meanwhile I know that many of these Amata sp. are not correctly IDed (not only on Project Noah) and we have some discussions about this genus. They are very variable, but I am not even sure if this is an Amata sp, although I would slightly tend to call this one Amata, but I am not sure.
This is not Amata nigriceps. Spots are different, also the colors of the head. Here is a trusted picture of Amata nigriceps:
http://lepbarcoding.org/australia/specie...
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mgg310/6330...
Appreciate your comments Yuko. Thanks! :)
Beautiful series!
Thanks Leana. Updated the cover pic. :)
Adi, wish granted :) Thanks!