Athalia liberta

This one was found on Hogweed.

female Athalia liberta, North Elmham Cathedral Meadows (Norfolk, UK), 6th August 2018

This came to light. The specimen was a bit mouldy by the time I came to examine it which made some of its head features difficult to assess, but I got it to liberta or cornubiae before examining the hypopygium and saw. I couldn't really see the hypopygium before clearing the abdomen but when I did so the shape didn't seem to be a perfect match for liberta, although probably closest to this. The saw ruled out cornubiae. Looking at Lacourt the saw seems about right for liberta but there are other species with rather similar saws with shallow teeth. In particular I think the saw on this actually matches the diagram there for lugens better than liberta: the apex of the principal tooth is slightly further off-centre and the pair of prong-lke shapes that project from the centre toward the teeth point to the long side of the apex rather than directly towards the apex. So could it in fact be lugens? I don't think it can be - the hypopygium is very wrong for that, the hind tarsi are clearly ringed only with black and the apical half of the wings are clearly hyaline compared to the yellow-washed bases.

female Athalia liberta showing forewing, hypopygium (including close-up of central projection) and saw (3 zooms), Wendling Beck Environment Project (Norfolk, UK), 11th May 2025