Garrha sincerella

Garrha sincerella at Melba, ACT

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Identification history

Garrha sincerella	11 Feb 2021	donhe
Garrha sincerella	11 Feb 2021	ibaird
Garrha phoenopis	23 Jan 2021	ibaird
Unidentified	23 Jan 2021	kasiaaus

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3 comments

ibaird wrote:

11 Feb 2021

Should this be G. sincerella? If so there are others ID'd as G phoenopis which are open to question.

donhe wrote:

11 Feb 2021

My understanding from looking at BOLD photos is that
G. sincerella has rusty brown forewings, each with either a wide sometimes incomplete transverse pale band, or random fragmented pale markings (sexual dimorphism?).
G. phoenopis has off-white forewings, which display a rusty brown 'Y' shape when the wings are closed.
I only trust BOLD.
I basically do not trust ALA or iNaturalist identifications.
What do you reckon?

ibaird wrote:

11 Feb 2021

There are a few more I think in G. phoenopis on CNM which are arguably G. sincerella, now that I am more aware of that species!. ALA relies on the peer review of others for ID. BOLD has its limitations too. The numerical taxonomy done is on a limited basis on selected specimens from collections only. Sometimes the cut-off point for numerical analysis appears somewhat arbitrary. Our task is to identify moths from life. That's difficult sometimes when BOLD only illustrates set museum specimens which are not fresh and fade and look very different from a live specimen of the same species. On the ALA and iNaturalist one sometimes also needs to take account of what the source of data is who is doing the identifying.

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