Moths of Toowoomba

Urolitha bipunctifera GEOMETRIDAE

Urolitha bipunctifera GEOMETRINAE GEOMETRIDAE

 

Family:- GEOMETRIDAE
Sub Family:- GEOMETRINAE
Genus:- Urolitha
Species:- bipunctifera

That is the last of the Geometrid moths for the time being.
There are still a lot more that I have yet to identify, or have been unable to identify.







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Heliocosma argyroleuca HELIOCOSMA Group

 

Family:- HELIOCOSMA Group
Sub Family:-
Genus:- Heliocosma
Species:- argyroleuca (probably)

 

Heliocosma argyroleuca is a member of the Tortricoidea superfamily. The wingspan is about 15 mm.

 Identification

 The internet sites I checked when trying to identify this moth shows there is a lot of confusion, particularly if going by wing pattern, colouring and other visual identifiers. Two of the normally reliable sites I use for identification have photos of what look like the same moth named as both Heliocosma argyroleuca and Heliocosma incongruana. This doesn't necessarily mean they are wrong, but there is a need to be careful.

The site boldsystems.org has a number of photos of each species separated into what appears to be the correct species groups, and so, for the time being, I will go with the best match from that site, which is Heliocosma argyroleuca. This also matches up with a couple of other sources, one of which I know the gentleman who photographed the moth is an entomologist.

This does bring up the subject of using the internet for identification. A number of sites are simply copying (or being given copies) of the information that appears on other sites. Contributors may also incorrectly identify a moth from another incorrect identification. The original identification may be incorrect and this is copied to the next site and so on.
The original photographer/ identifier may go back and correct the original source but the correction does not always flow on.

I try to get consensus from a number of sites and books and still end up with errors. I have seen photos that I have corrected after publication on this blog, turn up in other places uncorrected.

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