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Thread: Moths from Nam Nao, Thailand

  1. #1
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    Default Moths from Nam Nao, N E Thailand

    During my trip in December-January I put up a 250 W blended Hg-lamp most of the places I went to. The exception was unfortunately Khao Soi Dao, which was by far the most promising place, but to there I travelled by bus not car and stayed in a tent, so it was not feasible to bring the equipment.

    In Nam Nao I had the light up for 3 nights, but the first one was very cold (down to 4 C), so it yielded little. The other two were much better, with the last one staying up at 13-15 C as the lowest.

    I took pics of as many species as possible and am trying to ID them from various online sources, but it is not easy. Here are some of those I have an idea about. There are many more...

    Any help is appreciated, just one more name (or even one less in case of obvious misIDs that can not get a better one) would be nice

    Some of them are not spot on to what I found on the web, and in one case (Netria multispinae) the pic is spot on compared to the pic on thaibugs.com, but other pics looks different. So I am sure it is indeed the species named Netria multispinae on thaibugs.com, that I shot at Nam Nao, but the pic on thaibugs may be misidentified...
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    Last edited by guldsmed; 27-Feb-2012 at 07:36 AM.

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    There are only a couple of IDs I need to question.

    1) Benbowia is placed as a subgenus of Stauropus in Schlintmeister's Moths of Thailand, Volume 5, 2007. The species you mention is not, as far as I am aware, found in Thailand. It looks, very much, like Stauropus virescens, which is certainly found in the area of Nam Nao.

    2) The Metanastria species you mention is only found in the far North of Thailand (Chang Mai area). It is much more likely to be the widespread Metanastria hyrtaca. The size of the cell spot also indicates that species.

    The Syntypistis species are very difficult to ID from photos alone. Indeed, Schlintmeister has advised me, for several of my photos, just to put 'Syntypistis sp.' as you have done. I suggest you keep it as it is.

    I look forward to more moths from your travels.

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    Thx Leslie

    With the info about distribution for the first one, there can be little doubt you are correct.

    Regarding the Metanastria, I was aware of that problem from the map at Digital Moths of Asia, but the specimens of hyrtaca there, had different shape/size of the black area. I was naturally suspicious, that it could turn out as you indicate, but I did not know the definite ID mark, so I went on what I (thought I) could see

    Regarding the "Syntypistis", does that mean, that you agree it is the right genus at least? I think the Syntypistis, Benbowia and Netria all look like Stauropus


    Here come a few more:
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    The first one intrigues me. I can find no references of A. fuscilinea being found in Thailand, only Peninslar Malaysia, Borneo and Sumatra. I therefore looked at the only known (to me) Thai species, A. discispilana, but it looks very different. It is quite probable that my sources are a bit old, and, unfortunately, the series of Moths of Thailand has not yet reached the Drepanidae.

    The last one looks like Teldenia specca.

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by guldsmed View Post
    Regarding the Metanastria, I was aware of that problem from the map at Digital Moths of Asia, but the specimens of hyrtaca there, had different shape/size of the black area. I was naturally suspicious, that it could turn out as you indicate, but I did not know the definite ID mark, so I went on what I (thought I) could see

    Regarding the "Syntypistis", does that mean, that you agree it is the right genus at least? I think the Syntypistis, Benbowia and Netria all look like Stauropus

    Metanastria mantra
    is a montane sp., only being found at altitudes over 1800m. Were you that high?

    I am sure that it is a Syntypistis sp.

    I have tried to find Digital Moths of Asia, but without success. Could you advise me of its web address? It would be very useful for me to bookmark the site.

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    No I was not that high, I guess around 800-1000, I will go for hyrtaca then.

    Digital moths of Asia is here: http://www.jpmoth.org/~dmoth/

    upper left menu, glad that I too can be of some small help

    Regarding the Agnidra fuscilinea, it is a second case like "Netria multispinae", the ID is based on thaibugs.com, the pic looks spot on, but possibly/probably because of wrong ID at thaibugs.com...

    Agnidra fuscilinea is not recorded anywhere near Nam Nao or Chiang Mai according to Digital moths of Asia, and the pic there is also not spot on (though similar) so almost certainly it is wrong... but what is it then?

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    Thanks so much for the link.

    The moths of Thailand have been generally overlooked, with the exception of Sphingidae and Saturnidae. The series of books, The Moths of Thailand are trying to improve the knowledge of Thai moths, but the other families that have so far been covered are only the Notodontidae, Lasiocampidae, Noctuoidea (in part only), and Arctiinae.

    When experts on these families visited Thailand, they discovered a huge amount of new species, not only for Thailand, but to science as well. It is not inconceivable, indeed quite probable, that you will find species not recorded from the country. I am fully aware that I have several from Samui.

    I also have noted that the site makes no use of this series of books. For example, in volume 6,(Arctiinae) Dr. Karel Cerny shows 208 new species to Thailand and a further 66 new species to science out of a total of 406 members of this subfamily, none of which are mentioned on the site as being found from Thailand.

    Your Agnidra sp. looks more like A. fuscilinea than any other member of the Genus, poss a new subspecies, but that would require one to be collected to prove, one way or the other.

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    Yeah, few on line resources are a match for good books, though there are exceptions such a this society's butterfly guide (which is excellent within its limited geographical area) and some specialist sites to smaller groups such as The Sphingidae of Southeast-Asia site.


    Do you have the Notodontidae volume? If so, what does Netria multispina look like there?

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    The female may not look too close, but it is old and faded, and is still the closest I can find to your photo!

    Male & Female
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    Thx a lot, I will leave at that then. Soon I will go to an auction in our local entomological society, where among many other things will be 3 volumes of moths of Thailand and some of moths of Borneo too, wonder how many will be interested - hope nobody except me

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