Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Greetings,
Can anyone identify this moth I found in my backyard? It is just shy of 1.5 inches long. The closest I can come up with is a member of the Holomelina species. Any information would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Scott

where do you live?

It does look like a Holomelina or maybe a catocala. you can go to Moths of NA and look by your state. Those pics are of dead, faded pinned specimens, but if you get close you can then do a google image search. You can also post it on www.buguide.net - we love to i.d. stuff there!

here's the Moths of NA site
moth of n. america

Hi lele,
Thank you for the information. I live in Salt Lake City, Utah, and I actually was at the Moths of N.A. site where I saw a similar moth by looking at my State, but was not sure of my since many of the moths there do not have photos for my State. I did not know about the buguide.net site so I will also check that out. Thanks again.
Scott

it is a great site - and fun! You can browse and/or upload your photo as an ID request (need to register, but free.)

here is the link
bugguide

I just signed up on that site, and you are right, it is a lot of fun to explore around in!! I also posted two pictures in the ID Request section, and then performed a search on both Holomelina and Catocala species. I am still not sure, but I think you may be right in suggesting Catocala, as the second photo I posted shows the striped legs and subtle patterns on the primary wings, which I saw in their examples of Catocala.
Thanks again for a great suggestion!!
Scott

Hey Scott,

Just checked out the other photo - love the blue background! Really makes her color stands out.

I love that site. Troy Bartlett, who started it, started with a site of just his photos (really nice!) and from it bugguide was born. I have several Satuniid leps posted as well as a few things I needed i.d on

lele

Greetings lele,
I received a reply to my post and was informed it is a Large Yellow Underwing Moth (Noctua pronuba). They are really cool and it is the first time I have seen one of these. I hope to see more. I am glad you liked the blue backgroung. I was a tad concerned about it interfering with the colors of the moth, but it was pretty frisky and flew to my recycle bin, hence the blue.
Once again, I want to thank you for your help, and for directing me to that site. I think I will learn a great deal from the collection they have there, as well as from the folks who know so much more about these things than I do.
Regards,
Scott