Opisthoxia metargyria - Opisthoxia Moth (Walker, 1867)

Lepidoptera: Bombycina: Geometroidea: Geometridae: Ennominae: Palyadini

Both are different individuals of the same species found in the same day and location.

Location: Brazil, Santa Catarina, Benedito Novo (Lat: -26.76913048010951, Long: -49.362922782338615, Accuracy in meters: 6.798487054687724)
Wingspan: Sadly, I don't remember.
Date:

1 (this picture) - 25th of November, 2017 at 08:30:22pm.

2 - 25th of November, 2017 at 09:37:10pm:

Opisthoxia metargyria is a species of moth in the order Lepidoptera, subdivision Bombycina, superfamily Geometroidea, family Geometridae, subfamily Ennominae and tribe Palyadini.


This unusual moth sports an overall white coloring with brown or black stripes and yellow hindwing tips with black dots. They are easily mistaken with other very similar looking moth, such as Pityeja sp., Ourapyterix sp. and Phrygionis platinata (and other Phrygionis sp.), which I believed was the case for the latter even though it was different in the number of stripes. I sent to Insetologia for help and Cesar nailed the ID as Opisthoxia metargyria after citing the key I provided in the sources below. The closest species to this are Opisthoxia saturniaria (https://chr.ma/figure/5b72402f8f0e37249c6c26c8/detail?profile=mcampos&category=59b02b0180bdc9021c307302)#!# and Opisthoxia miletia (#!#https://www.discoverlife.org/mp/20p?see=I_CAM9963&res=640). The median point, farthest from the margins of the second pair of wings, along with other traits separates them from these species.

Synonyms include:

Argyroplutodes (Warren, 1894)
Callurapteryx (Warren, 1894)
Ophthalmophora (Guenee, 1857)

Outer margin of the forewings with a black stripe proceeding from the submarginal point to the apex. Along the postdiscal, discal and basal areas of the forewings there are four more stripes, with a total of five. The fourth stripe starting from the outer margin stripe of the forewings connect with the correspondent stripe on the hindwings. Second stripe from the outer margin follows along the hindwings' outer margin, briefly interrupted by an ocelus and yellow patch, continuing towards (but ending before) the inner margin. Postdiscal, discal and basal areas of the hindwings are made of around 4 stripes. Tip of the hindwings, just below the yellow patches there is a large ocelus and a smaller ocelus to the side. Eyes are large, compound and green. Antennae short and the abdomen white. You can find another picture I took in the same day and location of another Opisthoxia metargyria here. Both of these pictures are of different individuals of the same species found in the same day and location.

Opisthoxia was registered in this article (https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Gunnar_Brehm/publication/36449652_Diversity_of_geometrid_moths_in_a_Montane_rainforest_in_Ecuador/links/0912f504ee5a862fe5000000/Diversity-of-geometrid-moths-in-a-Montane-rainforest-in-Ecuador.pdf) as feeding on plants of the family Myrsinaceae. Palyadini, however, a Neotropical tribe, seems to be an exception to the polyphytophagous feeding habits of many other Ennominae tribus.

If you know anything else about the egg-adult process, lifespan, behavior, or anatomy, please tell me and I will credit you.

Other sources:

http://v3.boldsystems.org/index.php/Taxbrowser_Taxonpage?taxid=675134

http://eol.org/pages/412656/details

https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opisthoxia_metargyria

https://books.google.com.br/books?id=_ZAtDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA141&lpg=PA141&dq=opisthoxia+metargyria&source=bl&ots=8vB6pFEIZ9&sig=xDlJNtWAtUzThVYuD4fizvf5KF0&hl=pt-BR&sa=X&sqi=2&ved=2ahUKEwj0_quemP_dAhVOFogKHSDhAXQQ6AEwDXoECAkQAQ

https://www.insetologia.com.br/2018/09/mariposa-phrygionis-em-santa-catarina.html#comment-4120932506

Key: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1365-3113.1995.tb00082.x