Looper Moth

Description:

Noctuidae; Plusiinae; Plusiopalpa sp. nr. adrasta. This moth is not easy to identify from the available images and information on the web. In this case, I think that the moth in my pictures is close to Plusiopalpa adrasta Felder, 1874 (in comparison to a specimen in Philippine Lepidoptera) and that is the reason for the scientific name I have entered above. However, during a last minute check before sending this spotting to PN, I came across some photos in inaturalist.org which also look close (or maybe closer) to my moth and they were labelled Chrysodeixis includens. So, now I had to make a decision, which of the two possible ID's I should go for. It wasn't too difficult to decide. On one hand, Philippine Lepidoptera (from what I can see, a group of academics and professionals in this field) and on the other hand, a number of beautiful photographs submitted to inaturalist.org by... well there's the problem, These pictures might have been submitted by a professional Lepidopterist or by someone like me, who is just navigating his way through a new hobby. I have no way of knowing. So, Plusiopalpa sp. nr. adrasta it is.

Habitat:

This rather strange little moth was spotted on a leaf of Crested celosia (Celosia argentea) in our backyard. This plant is known as Palong-manok in Filipino (the national language), it translates directly into English as Cockscomb.

Notes:

I have recently sent one or two spottings of similar moths to Project Noah. So I must immediately check to see if I need to make any revisions, in the light of what I mentioned above.