Observation date: July 20, 2015
Submitted by: sh11
Specimen type: Photograph
Observation notes: None.
Status: Resident
Verified by: rogerdowner
Verified date: March 28, 2016
Coordinator notes: According to BugGuide: The adults of both Catocala amica and C. lineella, are indistinguishable by photo (larva indistinguishable as well, Wagner 361). Traditionally, amica was distinguished by being lighter color overall, with less bold lines, and less blackish shading in the basal and median areas, while lineella was said to be darker overall with bolder lines and more black shading. However, as numerous specimens of both species have been sequenced and identified via DNA analysis, not only have those traditional characteristics been shown unreliable ( > 50% inaccuracy rate), but even the COI sequence data between some individual amica and lineella specimens have been so close as to be statistically identical.
