RoyGoff

Over the last two days I have updated all the Cossidae pages on my web site, including the page for this species and hereby enclose a link please see http://www.africanmoths.com/pages/COSSID...
I hope it all works!!

I should have added that it is a member of the Cossidae family also known as Goat Moths or Tree Borers

This was identified for me by Willy and Jurate De Prins from the Afromoths web site so all credit goes to them

I would very much like to include this on my web site and I am sure Willy and Jurate would like to do the same. Would this be possible.

This is a very strange moth. It does not really fit any family I know. The antennae suggest Cossidae but little else fits that family. I will try and find out a bit more.

The purple and the pink colours are usually present and obviously brighter on a fresh specimen, but they are exaggerated on this photo probably by flash exposure see http://www.africanmoths.com/pages/SPHING... for a range of colours

Hi everybody, There is very little wrong with this picture. It is on the bright side and the possibility of UV increasing the colours sounds logical. I would suggest that it may be caused by an imbalance within the flash of the camera and sometimes I find that structure of the background affects camera exposure especially on auto. However I frequently catch these moths and when fresh they are very bright and very similar to Dan's photo. It is not a colour form just a normal moth. With this species colour fades very quickly and I have never seen a museum specimen that does justice to the colours of a freshly emerged moth, especially the green which tends to shade towards brown within a day or two of the moth being killed and certainly very quickly when alive for a few days they become much more drab.

I have a lot of trouble with these there seem to be a lot of species but few pictures or named specimens available. This is most probably a Scalmicauda species but I think there is another genus which look very similar. I have a photo of it from Cameroon

Hi, I agree that this is S. vestalis, From what I can find out this is the only South African species to have a heavily marked hindwing as well as forewing with the fascia extending almost all the way across the wing.

Half the species formerly in the Noctiudae have been moved to a new family Erebidae.

This is Tolna.