Zale lunata vs. Zale minerea

Zale lunata and Zale minerea are common widespread moths in the United States and Canada, and the two are often confused. Both have multiple phenotypes, and the variation in coloration within each species is far greater than color differences between them. Here is a comparison of the forms from the Northeast:

https://tinyurl.com/y9oldr8t

You'll notice that lunata is consistently larger than minerea, but this doesn't help much when identifying photos of individual moths. The palps are also different in length, but the easiest way to tell them apart is by looking for the "double lobe" in the PM line which is present in lunata but absent in minerea. Here's an image showing this difference highlighted:

https://tinyurl.com/y73jmv3e

Of course, there are dozens of other Zales out there too, so one can't rule out every other Zale species with this rule. In particular, galbanata looks like a paler version of minerea in some of its forms, and it often gets confused with minerea (though you should never confuse it with lunata, as it lacks the bilobed PM line.) But if you're fairly certain you've got a minerea/lunata, this is a pretty consistent way to figure which one it is.

Posted on April 20, 2018 09:36 PM by paul_dennehy paul_dennehy

Comments

@paul_dennehy , great job on these moth ID's -- I really do appreciate you going through so many of them and correcting many of my mistake ID's! :)

Posted by sambiology almost 6 years ago

Thanks Paul for posting this. I find these two especially confusing:-)

Posted by conuropsis almost 6 years ago

Thanks for posting this and help with identifications on some of my observations.

Posted by friel almost 6 years ago

Thanks for the work. All the Zale spp are very hard to identify - nice to have one or two concrete guidelines.

Posted by mamestraconfigurata almost 6 years ago

Excellent, thanks Paul. I just called all of mine lunata; now I have 1 minerea.

Posted by krancmm almost 6 years ago

I've referred to this excellent post many times for help in identifying Zales. Unfortunately, it looks like the image links aren't currently working. When you get a chance, could you please relink them? Thanks!

Posted by jenniferwhanson over 1 year ago

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