Petrophila IDs "Done"

Whew! I just finished a long-overdue task. From my interest in aquatic Crambid moths, I had wanted to review all available sightings of the genus Petrophila on iNaturalist. Over the past two days, using the Identify pages, I went through all of the remaining "Needs ID" observations. I can't identify many of the Central or South American species because there are just too many Neotropical species which I'm not familiar with. Those aside, I have now examined a little over 9,200 (86%) of the 10,700 Petrophila observations from the U.S. and Canada. I estimate that about 95 to 97% of them allowed a species level ID. (Currently 6.3% of all U.S. and Canadian observations sit at genus level but some of those will get to species when another community ID is added.)

Selfishly, this kind of effort has a number of benefits. It allows me (a) to cement in my mind not only the known diagnostic features of each of the several Petrophila species (see an array of the most common species, below), but also (b) to benefit from examining the variation available in patterns (and photographs) across the entire range of each species. Repetition is key in such a situation to gain some confidence in IDing, but it brings with it the chance for over-confidence. So I hope that only a modest number of my "improving" IDs will ever need to be changed or reversed.

Before I delve more deeply into the Petrophila moths of Central and South America, I hope to divert my attention to another favorite genus of mine, the Cisthene lichen moths, and review all the Needs ID observations for North America.

Now, everybody STOP observing Petrophila moths so I can catch my breath and turn my attention to other tasks! ;-)

Jalisco Petrophila (@jcochran706) | Canadian Petrophila (@smithjg1954) | Two-banded Petrophila (@jcochran706)

Feather-edged Petrophila (@gcwarbler) | Confusing Petrophila (@ouzel) | Capps' Petrophila (@gcwarbler)

Ozark Petrophila (@gzerbe57) | Kearfott's Petrophila (@egordon88) | Heppner's Petrophila (@ptexis)

Devil's River Petrophila (@ptexis) | Santa Fe Petrophila (@smithsqrd) | Spring Petrophila (@gaudettelaura)

Posted on July 6, 2024 02:57 AM by gcwarbler