What Zygaenid?

[Painted Jezebel]

Can anyone ID this colourful Zygaenid found on Samui today?

[atronox]

Could it be a sesiid?

[hkmoths]

Hi Les,

That is one hell of a colourful Sesiidae (Clearwing moth). Do you have any pheromone lures?

The sesiids are almost exclusively diurnal (but not entirely, I recall seeing 2 different species to light within 5 minutes of each other in Hainan), but are very overlooked because butterfly watchers usually ignore them thinking they're wasps and moth recorders are too busy with the nocturnal stuff!
Consequently, many species await scientific discovery & description.

cheers, Roger.

[Painted Jezebel]

Thanks Roger. Any news on when Jeremy's next volume, which I believe will include this family, is due on line?

[hkmoths]

I would expect the Zygaenidae and a revised / updated list for all species is going to be the final volume to be published, probably late 2010 early 2011. Of the last two published volumes, it's been a year to 18 months between publishing and going on-line, so probably 2012 at the earliest. There wont be any Sesiidae included, as this is an entirely different family that is very underworked and would need a lot more fieldwork with pheromone lures to get a good picture of the clearwing diversity in Borneo.

The penultimate volume is the "Acontiinae" of Noctuidae, which is now recognised as unnatural assemblage of various subfamilies (Aventiinae, Eustrotiinae, Acontiinae, Araeopteroninae, Eublemminae, Phytometrinae - the last was included in part 17), and also includes Pantheinae, Bagisarinae and Aediinae. When I last had contact with Jeremy, a couple of months ago, he said that the work was nearly done, with the text already with Henry Barlow and the plates soon to follow, so my guess is that this will be published late this year and be online by early 2011.

cheers,

Roger.

[Painted Jezebel]

Thanks Roger.

Do I take it, that although I do not like collecting, it would be of benefit if I did collect Sessiids that I come across and pass them on? If so, who should I send them to? Would whoever is working on this want any photos? Seems to be a lot of ??? in my reply, sorry!

I would expect the Zygaenidae and a revised / updated list for all species is going to be the final volume to be published, probably late 2010 early 2011. Of the last two published volumes, it's been a year to 18 months between publishing and going on-line, so probably 2012 at the earliest. There wont be any Sesiidae included, as this is an entirely different family that is very underworked and would need a lot more fieldwork with pheromone lures to get a good picture of the clearwing diversity in Borneo.

The penultimate volume is the "Acontiinae" of Noctuidae, which is now recognised as unnatural assemblage of various subfamilies (Aventiinae, Eustrotiinae, Acontiinae, Araeopteroninae, Eublemminae, Phytometrinae - the last was included in part 17), and also includes Pantheinae, Bagisarinae and Aediinae. When I last had contact with Jeremy, a couple of months ago, he said that the work was nearly done, with the text already with Henry Barlow and the plates soon to follow, so my guess is that this will be published late this year and be online by early 2011.

cheers,

Roger.

[hkmoths]

Axel Kallies

contact me offline for his e-mail.

cheers, Roger.