Athetis tenuis

Plain Tenuis Moth at Kambah, ACT

Request use of media

Identification history

Athetis tenuis	18 Oct 2020	GlennCocking
Athetis tenuis	17 Oct 2020	ibaird
Athetis tenuis	17 Oct 2020	GlennCocking
Threnosia sp. (genus)	13 Oct 2020	ibaird
Unidentified	12 Oct 2020	HarveyPerkins

Identify this sighting

Please Login or Register to identify this sighting.

User's notes

Attracted to lights at night

7 comments

donhe wrote:

13 Oct 2020

a rather worn Noctuidae ?

ibaird wrote:

13 Oct 2020

I am suggesting Threnosia sp. (genus) based on the rather distinctive head thorax and large black eyes (an elongated body shape) which match similar photos of that species in life., see https://bie.ala.org.au/species/urn:lsid:biodiversity.org.au:afd.taxon:c1d82f31-005e-4cf8-9011-ab1d560998e1 Moths of Victoria give a comprehensive guide to Threnosia spp. on their accompanying disc to Part 2. The named species T. myochroa (Heath Footman ) has been originally described as Victorian in distribution, but MoV acknowledges more recent evidence of a wider distribution. Bold Systems 4 shows a distribution of that species cleary including SE NSW and lodged speimensalso from the ACT. T. myochroa males show a faint broad sloping dark band across the mid forewing, although this specimen and the females shown in MoV have plain hindwings - as do other un-named Threnosia spescies illustrated in MoV which look very similar, so would not be easy to distinguish on sight alone.

ibaird wrote:

17 Oct 2020

I am maintaining my suggestion of Threnosia i.e T. myochroa becouase this specimen and that species has a fine white line along the costa of the forewing.

donhe wrote:

18 Oct 2020

Agree with Threnosia myochroa, but it does not yet seem to be in Tiger Moth (Arctiinae) list ?

donhe wrote:

18 Oct 2020

I am worried that the narrow white costal line is a trick of the light.

GlennCocking wrote:

18 Oct 2020

I'm thinking the same thing - many moths have a slightly lighter costa, sometimes by design, and sometimes simply wear, that shows up strongly in a flash photo.

GlennCocking wrote:

20 Dec 2020

The shape of the moth is wrong for Threnosia myochra, see the BH specimen, and is right for Athetis tenuis.

Please Login or Register to comment.