Noctuid ident

[DR. JAMES ADAMS]

Dear listers, especially those interested in noctuids,

	No picture with this one, other than the one I can paint in your 
head.  The moth is certainly one I have never encountered 
previously -- initial impression is something near Hemipachnobia 
subporphyrea (see recent MONA fascicle on the Noctuinae).  It is a 
male, roughly < or = 2 inches in wingspan, with a warm brownish 
appearance, though overlain with more grayish terminally on the 
forewings.  The whole moth has a hoary-ish appearance -- sort of 
frosted with grey, pretty hairy thorax, *obviously* bipectinate 
antennae.  The hindwings are dark greyish, and the underside of all 
wings is relatively unmarked grey.  As for markings on the 
forewings -- two lines just a little darker than the ground color: the 
outer one is PM/ST and curved, the inner one is bent near the 
costa but (irregularly) straight to the posterior edge.  There is an 
oblong, slightly bent greyish reniform spot, and another smaller 
round cellular spot, also grey.  Neither spot is spectacularly darker 
than the background, though both are clear.

	So, what do you think?  Anybody?  By the way, the moth was 
caught in the mountainous Highlands area, far from the coastal 
bogs where H. subporphyrea is supposed to be found.

	James

Dr. James K. Adams
Dept. of Natural Science and Math
Dalton State College
213 N. College Drive
Dalton, GA  30720
Phone: (706)272-4427; fax: (706)272-2533
U of Michigan's President James Angell's 
  Secret of Success: "Grow antennae, not horns"