Wasp Moth

Description:

Small wasp moth, 8 mm in body length. It has a flaming red abdomen and transparent smokey grey wings. The head and thorax are black with scales in white patterns. No red on the thorax. It seems that this is a night flying species, but it came to garden lights at about 2:30 AM. Two species are reported for Mexico: Apeplopoda mecrida and Apeplopoda ochracea. In the literature I can't find a single picture which shows the thorax. All specimens are either side pictures or have a pin blocking the thoracic pattern. Based on distributional data, it is probably A. mecrida.

Habitat:

Garden lights, semi-rural residential area, San Cristobal de Las Casas, Chiapas, Mexico, 2,200 meters.

Notes:

http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/173... https://www.researchgate.net/publication... https://www.uv.mx/personal/fhernandez/fi... https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Male... https://mothphotographersgroup.msstate.e... http://v3.boldsystems.org/index.php/Taxb...