Burnished Brass

[Julian Howe]

I caught this lovely moth a few days ago, which I called a Burnished Brass. Have been looking through British Moths and Butterflies by Chris Manley, and because the dark bar through the centre of the wing is split by the brass colour, he has called it Cryptic Burnished Brass. Not seen this mentioned anywhere else, Cryptic BB is not on UK or Norfolk moths, so is it a separate species, or not? Sorry if this has been talked about before on here, I'm a new kid on the block.

[Adam Cheeseman]

No it's the same species just a different colour form. Diachrysia chrysitis f. juncta. The type without the bar is Diachrysia chrysitis f. aurea. Not heard it being called Cryptic Burnished Brass before.
Cheers,

Adam

[GuyF]

As I understand it the situation is still a bit confused. In Europe the two forms are recognised as separate species, with form aurea being known as Diachrysia chrysitis and form juncta being known as D. tutti or D. stenochrysitis. There is some information about these moths in Britain here - Grampy Bustard: Burnished Brass split?
There still seems to be some debate about these 'species' though, and I've read that the green band may not actually be a reliable way of separating the two. I'd be very interested in seeing some firm evidence to show why Burnished Brass should be split if anyone has any references. I'd also be interested to hear whether any breeding experiments have been done yet, as if there are two species surely all offspring should be of the same form as their mother.
Interesting stuff anyway, and it probably won't be too long before we know for certain either way!
Guy

[Julian Howe]

Interesting stuff, as I said earlier I only found the difference in Chris Manley's book. I will take a close look at any others I may catch, as you say Guy, it would be helpful to see if any breeding expts have taken place.