Leucania stenographa

Sugar Cane Armyworm at Ainslie, ACT

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Identification history

Leucania stenographa	27 Jan 2021	GlennCocking
Leucania (genus)	1 Dec 2020	donhe
Leucania stenographa	1 Dec 2020	ibaird
Unidentified	30 Nov 2020	ibaird
Leucania loreyi	30 Nov 2020	jb2602

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7 comments

jb2602 wrote:

1 Dec 2020

This may in fact be L. stenographa. How do you tell them apart other than by location?

ibaird wrote:

1 Dec 2020

L. loreyi is cosmopilitan in distribution, and apparently has been recorded in southern and northern eastern Australia (ALA, iNaturalist) so both species' known distributions potentially overlap in this part of Australia. The two species it seems are very difficult to distinguish on sight alone, hence the comment by Moths of Victoria that further work is needed. On looking further at both sightings 4359913 and 4360116 I think I cannot rule out this sighting being equally likely to be L. stenographa - its seems to fall well within the variation in appearance i can see online., I therefore propose we classify both sightings as L. stenographa for now or revert to Leucania sp,(genus).

GlennCocking wrote:

27 Jan 2021

ANIC specimens of L. loreyi are consistently dark in the forewing with only a faint central dark line. They are all from Queensland. This record is of L. stenographa.

jb2602 wrote:

27 Jan 2021

Do the ANIC specimens of L. loreyi have two black lines along the ventral side of the abdomen Glenn?

GlennCocking wrote:

30 Jan 2021

They were prominently present in a dozen L. stenographa that I looked at, and much less prominently present or absent in a similar number if L. loreyi.

jb2602 wrote:

30 Jan 2021

So do you think that is a distinguishing feature Glenn?

GlennCocking wrote:

31 Jan 2021

It does seem to be, but one should look more thoroughly than I have before trying to be definitive. Ditto my "L. loreyi are consistently dark in the forewing with only a faint central dark line. They are all from Queensland " , but a quick look at BOLD Bins seems to support this distinction.

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