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Can you identify an unusual moth?

I saw a moth which lit on a post of my porch in Saint Augustine Florida. It was beautiful and, (for me) unusual and I'd like help identifying it. It was approx. 3 1/2" at the largest span of the wings, which were similiar to one of the Geometroidae, swooping downward and outward to an almost even edge at the bottom with no feathering or scallops of the edges. Coloring was yellow/brownish orange. The head was fuzzy, (hairy) light beige. The abdomen was darker in color with horizontal stripes in a deeper color. There were light beige/yellow patterns on the darker main color, the patterns were one small spot at the head, large half diamonds, (not perfectly even, but elongated toward the bottom of the outer opposite sides of the lower wings, as if the pattern were split and mirrored (two single wings, not four) and two smaller splotches at the inner lowest portion of the wings, where they nearly met evenly, though gracefully curved outward all the way down the vertical length and then inward toward the abdomen across the horizontal bottom, curving up slightly at the inner horizontal edges where they came together. The moth's two front legs were extended beyond the head, they and the antenna were hairy as well. There were other dark patterns, (about the same as the stripes on the abdomen) the most prominent being two spots beneath the light triangular pattern on the abdomen, (upper) and one larger one on each inner side of each light half-diamond pattern. I would greatly appreciate if anyone can identify it, I have lived here my whole life, visited every butterfly/moth exhibit and rainforest and never seen one like it, though some similar. I searched 12 websites and there seem to be no pictures of this moth. I will post a picture as soon as possible, (digital camera was out of charge and I had to take them the old-fashioned way :) so I have to have them developed). I'd really appreciate any info! Thanks, Sugar

Public Comments

  1. TRY HERE 310,000 moth images To choose from > http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&q=moths&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi
  2. Hi! Maybe these sites will help: Florida butterflies & moths: http://www.pbase.com/tmurray74/florida_butterflies Photos & ID's of moths of central Florida (eight pages): http://mothphotographersgroup.msstate.edu/Files/Live/MW/MWsite/MWtaxa1.htm Moths of south Florida: Click on the arrow for more photos: http://mothphotographersgroup.msstate.edu/FL2007/SoFLMoths01.shtml You can use this Database of Butterflies and Moths of North America to search for a particular moth. You can click on the name of the moth listed on this florida list for photo & more info: http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/map?_fc=1&x=273&y=191 http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/ You'll need to click on each catagory to view & more catagories will come up, such as... Skippers: http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/gallery?f=19&_st=1 Sphinx Moths & Hawkmoths: http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/gallery?f=30&_st=1 Polyphemus moth: http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species?l=3290 Bug guide-click on images for more info: http://bugguide.net/node/view/82/bgimage?from=24 Families of moths- click on name on left side of page for more info : http://www.hsu.edu/content.aspx?id=6587 Good luck!!! Hope this is helpful.
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