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Thanks go to Don Lafontaine, Biosystematics Research Centre, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, who identified the moth in response to an enquiry sent to him by Larry Line. Dr. Lafontaine's response included the following information:
Your moth at the moment is Bellura gortynoides Walker. Eric Quinter at AMNH, who is working on a revision of the Apameini, thinks that the "southern species," which has paler, yellower forewings and more pink on the hindwings, is a different species from the "northern species," which has an orange-brown forewing and a darker hindwing. However, he has little data on possible areas of overlap to indicate whether they are real species or subspecies, and the types have not been checked to determine which forms the names go with. Most are described from "United States" so only diffusa (from Maine) is for sure the northern one.
So, it is possible that this specimen will be found to fall withing the range (geographical and color-wise) of an as yet undescribed new species. Larry's photo of the same specimen, exhibiting the hind wings, is shown below. Beside that is a photo of "typical" B. gortynoides from the Maryland collection of John Glaser. John has never run into the lighter form, and has found the typical form to be uncommon in the Coastal Plain counties bordering upon Chesapeake Bay. The larva are known to bore into and feed upon Yellow Water-lily, but also are reported to feed on Cattails and Pickerelweed..
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