 you can try to identify your burnet by following the link below which takes you to the visual key... any suggestion for improving this key will be greatly appreciated. Identifying a burnet on a photograph is difficult and it is useful to look simultaneously at several views of the same insect if possible. The view from above the insect remains the most reliable to appreciate the shape of the spots.Spots are given numbers in genus Zygaena from 1 to 6 (see the numbering on the left) . If a burnet has only got 5 spots, one must conclude that spot No.6 is missing wing patterns can vary a lot within a burnet population, some individuals can even show atypical details. As far as possible it is interesting to examine several individuals in order to determine a general tendency in wing patterns. Always remember that two or more species can fly at the same place at the same time ! the main characters to look at in genus Zygaena are : the colour of the collar which exists in several species, the number of spots on the forewing, the thickness of the black border on the hindwing, the shape of spot No.6 (crescent moon shape or rounded), the possible existence of a red belt, the possible coalescing of spots No.2&4 and spots No.3&5, forming red bands. In species whose spots are separate the distance between spots No.3&4 is sometimes important to take into account for identifying similar species, since these spots can either be remote from each other or touch each other |
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