childs.kj

"rubescens is more straw yellow and rusty red where hibisci always has at least some gray on it."

Thanks to Dwayne Badgero for this tidbit of information.

I checked with someone more knowledgeable and It's Orthosia hibisci.
I'm comfortable with the moths I see on my farm but many times moths of the same species from different places look very different from what I see here. :)

Definitely Orthosia, probably Orthosia rubescens.

Your photo is being used in an online article by Scientific American but unfortunately they have it mislabeled as the North American species, Charidotella sexpunctata.
http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/runn...

I can't say I've ever heard of Pacific Diamondback. These look to be Southern Pacific Rattlesnakes, Crotalus oreganus helleri.

The wing tips of Scopula inductata are rounded. This is Scopula limboundata.

It's a species of Virbia, probably Virbia aurantiaca but there's no way to be sure without seeing the hindwings.

BugGuide is a great resource but you cannot make a call based on the images posted there unless they are of a distinctive species or have been confirmed by DNA barcoding or dissection. There is no real vetting process since anyone can post directly to any species page. I've talked to lepidopterists that have dealt with hundreds, sometimes thousands of specimens and they agree the 2 species cannot be visually separated,

You're probably right with Spodoptera ornithogalli but this moth is really worn so it's hard to be 100% sure.

The reason I'm putting Acrolophus sp. on so many of your moths is that the genus is a mess and needs some serious work. There's a good chance that there are a lot more species so many that are now being called Acrolophus popeanella many turn out to be new species. Take a look at the pictures on BugGuide and the Moth Photographers Group and you'll see the colors and patterns are all over the place.