Showy Desert Moth Takes a Siesta.
April 5, 2010
We were wandering through a carpet of yellow tackstem flowers. It was cold and windy when me wife looked down and spotted this moth hunkered down in one of the flowers. We were impressed with the sharp red lines on the wings and the crazy Afro harido…..It showed no signs of activity. Hope you have more of a clue about this character then we did. I submitted this before but didn’t put in my name and the date; please use this submission
Richard Potashin, Independence, CA
Owens Valley, Eastern California, 4000′ ft.
Hi Richard,
We vowed we would not give up until we identified this moth, and we started going dizzy sorting through all the plates on the Moth Photographers Group website before we landed on an Owlet Moth plate where Heliolonche pictipennis looked like a good bet. The images on BugGuide support that possibility. Schinia pulchripennis, also pictured on the Moth Photographers Group website also looks close, and that is substantiated on BugGuide, though BugGuide also has one image of Schinia sueta that is a very close match. We really believe this takes more of an expert than our amateur status can provide, though we are confident that the Subfamily Heliothinae of the Owlet Moths which is well represented on BugGuide contains your individual. Our money would be on Heliolonche pictipennis.
