MikeWall said:
Yo! It's a Svensson's - white tip to the palps....QED.
Mike,
I don't want to rain upon your parade, but have you verified at all the specimens you believe to be Svensson's CU by any other means. No disrespect, but one minute point like white palps isn't sufficient in my opinion
to be a positive ID factor unless it's been verified by:-
a. Several white tipped palp specimens being dissected for genitalia examination. Every one would have to be a Svenssons CU
b. Several ordinary specimens of Copper U/wing being examined in the same way just to make sure that they are all Copper U/wings, all would have to be.
c. Examined series of these insects is museum collections to make sure that all those identified as Svenson's CU all show the white tipped palps, and those identifies as ordinary Copper U/wing do not have white palps. (This is of course assuming that the museum has them identified correctly).
By several specimens I mean at least thirty of each species from various locations around the country, throughout the whole geographical range of each of these species, not just your locality.
It is possible that white tipped palps may just be a minor local variation and you would have to prove it wasn't. You would also have to prove that it applied to both males and females of the species as well. Not every entomologist can sex every moth they catch. Certainly it's easy when male and female differ in colour or antennae, but many moths don't vary in colour or antennae.
Until it can be proved beyond any doubt that all Svenson's CU's have the white tipped palps, AND all ordinary Copper U/wings haven't, then I am still for positive ID'ing by genitalia preparations. The only alternative is to put both species under Copper U/w agg.
Harry