Satin-green Forester
S3, Female, dorsal
Murray Mallee Region
Satin-green Forester
S3, Female, head
 
                      
Satin-green Forester (Pollanisus sp)Class: Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Insects (Insecta)
Order: Butterflies & Moths (Lepidoptera)
Family: Forester Moth (:Zygaenoidea Zygaenidae)     iNaturalist Observation
Species: Satin-green Forester (Pollanisus sp)
This Photo:     S3, Female, profile

Thank you David Muirhead & Bianca Giles for confirming the id of this species for us

General Species Information:
Found in the Murray Mallee SA, Adelaide Hills, Flinders Ranges and possibly elsewhere
~11mm long.
An incredibly shiny, metallic moth. Almost every surface is reflective, with a base colour of green, but depending on lighting and reflection/refraction can look any array of colours; from black, blue through green & copper.
The hindwing is a non-metallic plain brown.
The different specimens here highlight the colour variations which is not gender specific.
The female does have a non metallic, golden tuft on the tip of her abdomen.
It's very hard to differentiate the male & female from the antennae. While they are dramatically different the male tends to hold the filaments close to the core making them look very similar most of the time. Where as the gold tip on the female can be readily seen from side angles.
There are two species in this genus that can be easily confused; P. apicalis, which is generally smaller, & P. viridipulverulenta. Peter Marriott said that size is not a good separator of species indicating there are some very small P. viridipulverulenta. He said "Comparing the set specimens of apicalis and viridipulverulenta the wing shape is significant. P. apicalis has narrower wings in comparison to P. viridipulverulenta."
As Peter also said, camera angle, etc, can make this difficult to distinguish. Note that the male shown here (S2) is a single specimen; showing a variety of apparantly different wing shapes & colours.
Having looked at the specimens on Bold we don't have a good enough eye to differentiate, so have lifted our id to genus.

Copyright © 2016-2024 Brett & Marie Smith. All Rights Reserved. Photographed 21-Nov-2016
This species is an Australian Native Species, not listed in the SA Murray Mallee Survey of 2010.