Metalmark Moth

In this case, there is only one possibility for the scientific name: Brenthia sp.. Please, think of our search engine and our commitment of being serious and providing only IDs on a safe base. Your suggestion is of an American species and not found in Vietnam. If there is very (!) strong similarity with a known species you might add: "Genus name" cf. "species name". "cf." is agenerally accepted abbreviation for "similar to" or "compared to". This means, that the suspected species is morphologically VERY similar, there are no many other candidates which are close to that species, is reported from the same location, but ID is not based on a safe base from only a photograph. For example, you only have 1 picture from the top, but you cannot clearly see the underside, or you cannot see the colors or markings of the legs to be sure. In all other cases, the scientific name can only be "genus name" sp. We follow the usual scientific binomial or trinomial taxonomy. So, please, make you scientific name as "Brenthia sp." The common name in your moth would be "Metalmark Moth". You might add some comment or add more information in the description section of your spotting, but not in the common or scientific name field. For illustration I add some links of previous identifications with the above mentioned implications: https://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/1719997508 https://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/838925276 https://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/2035789751 https://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/1414695501 https://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/1937029743 Thanks for looking into these issues and for your understanding. We all want to enjoy nature, learn a lot about fauna and flora and habitats, but we also want to have proper names.

I am not qualified. For DNA you need a lab, much cheaper than years ago, but still a lot of work with it, i. e. even the sampling and conservation. DNA recording should be limited to scientists or passionate amateus which connections to scientists. Genus ID is often/"always" possible and sometimes very easy, but sometimes also tricky. There is no need for DNA. Location might help and going deep into the literature needs a lot of time, but sometimes we will find some clues. Public science, like we do here, is also a big chance and challenge. We have a lot of enthusiastic people with even more wonderful pictures of individuals and habitats . And we help each other where we can. And enjoy nature. But also important the we carefully try to get as close as we can. If we are not sure, we leave it as family or genus, better than have a wrong scientific name, which might be copied all the time.

Võ Anh Tuấn, as mentioned below, it should only be Brenthia sp.. An ID of the species is not possible from only a picture. There at least 15-20 different Brenthia sp. around. The scientific name field should only include the binomial scientific name, no family name or first describer. These informations are important, but should be added only in the description section. Thanks for supporting us and thanks for your nice contributions.

I would leave it at Brenthia sp., because Brenthia pavonacella is only found in North America. To tell the species apart, you will have to dissect them and look at them internally. http://mothphotographersgroup.msstate.edu/species.php?hodges=2627