A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Project Noah Nature School
Paranthrene robiniae
Wonderful male, wasp-mimicking moth! The wings have a clear window giving it the Clearwing common name. This mimics our local California Paper Wasp quite well: http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/140.... This species is described as having the first three segments being black but this one is a yellow variety.
Buckwheat in riparian area
First for Project Noah! Finally confirmed by Bug Guide and of course bayucca :)
Spotted on May 19, 2014
Submitted on May 20, 2014
15 Comments
Hi bayucca, thanks for your reply. Not sure what you mean with your last sentence but I appreciate your efforts with identification!
Cindy, I certainly checked Cissuvora as well ;-)...
Very similar indeed and tricky to compare with only this picture on bugguide. Trusting my eyes, I see some mince differences: In the middle of the dark band I only see one yellow ring in yours and in Cissuvora I see there an additional black ring and the yellow ring looks like being more prominent or broader in yours. The color of the antennae is also slightly different. I am not sure if I see no darker feathery-like parts on the hindwing in yours and this feature present in Cissuvora. Usually I trust my eyes, so I would still "vote" for Paranthrene robiniae. I would not be so concerned about being a lucky loser, important we have an ID at the end, whatever it is...
thanks cindy. :)
Thank you Ashley! I was going to have that one as the first but thought the amazing mimicry wouldn't be as obvious. I may end up switching it anyway :)
Love the second photo!
Thank you kyleighphelps, Sckel and bayucca. Sckel, I feel the same way about your collection! bayucca, I was looking at Cissuvora ampelopsis as a possibility but was unable to find more than one reference that's credible. Hoping Bug Guide has an ID soon :)
Beautiful!
wonderful. I really admire your collection, cindy.
Based on the markings overall, I would have suggested Paranthrene robiniae as well, beside the black parts you already mentioned. Let's see what bugguide means. I also noticed quite a great variability which makes the ID not really easier...
http://bugguide.net/node/view/139818/bgi...
http://bugguide.net/node/view/143915/bgp...
http://bugguide.net/node/view/143916/bgp...
Thank you so much, Joan!
Fantastic spotting and photos!
Thank you Gilma!
Fantastic spotting!! Great series of a gorgeous creature. Thank you for sharing, CindyBinghamKeiser
It is amazing! I almost didn't photograph it because I thought it was the wasp when I took a glance. So glad I did! I've been looking for this species for over 2 years :)
Right down to the markings behind the head!