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Most easily confused with T. thalassica, and T. occidentalis. T. fontana has fairly rich yellow hind wings (often slightly greenish) with a dark curving band and dark clouding (often entirely black) beyond the dark band. The hind femur is usually dark inside with two pale bands across it. The hind tibia is usually blue with a black base (the bent "knob" at the top), a pale ring next to the base, and typically a darker zone again just past the pale ring. The medain ridge on the prozona (front part of the pronotum) is usually raised little higher than on the metazona (rear part of pronotum). T. fontana tends to be a woodland species. In most populations of T. fontana, the dark bands on the tegmina (front wings) are wide dark and sharp-edged, with clear pale spaces between, and they fade out toward the top (rear) margin. T. thalassica usually has greenish to bluish hind wings with a narrow band and clear tip, as well as narrower dark bands on the tegmina. The hind femur usually only has one pale band across the inside. T. occidentalis usually has greenish wings with a narrow band and clear tip. Narrower somewhat irregular or broken dark bands cross the top of the tegmina, and the spaces between are commonly at least somewhat speckled. Neither has a dark zone on the hind tibia. The wings of both are often almost clear. T. fontana is also rather like Conozoa, but has no projection or tooth at the lower rear angles of the pronotum, and it has a lower ridge line on the top of the pronotum. Conozoa often have red, orange, or yellow hind tibiae (greenish or bluish in some areas in some species though). In some regions (along the west side of California, north into western British Columbia), populations refered to T. fontana have the pattern more broken with some speckling, and the bands on the tegmina may cross the top, but other characters are the same. These do not look much like "typical" T. fontana, and conceivably might even represent a distinct species (for which the name would be T. caerulipes). These resemble T. pallidipennis, but run smaller in size, tend to run more to a pattern of grays and blacks, and have the blue hind tibiae of T. fontana (yellow in T. pallidipennis). Trimerotropis occidentaloides occurs in the Santa Monica Mountains, Los Angeles County, California. Has narrower sometimes more weakly indicated tegminal bands, often represented as spots or speckles; and, the median ridge of the "prozona" (front portion of the pronotum) seems to most often be higher as viewed in profile than would be average for T. fontana. The distinction of Trimerotropis fontana from T. cincta seems artificial. The only relatively constant difference is the black "mask" through the eyes of T. cincta and distribution, yet even the mask is often present (especially in males) in T. fontana and sometimes missing (especially in females) in T. cincta. T. cincta occurs mostly east of T. fontana from British Columbia to Arizona, New Mexico and Nebraska. Trimerotropis koebelei is also basically the same and distinguished apparently only by coloration, with intermediate conditions occuring. It is like T. cincta, but averages lighter and more contrasting than both T. fontana and T. cincta, and occurs in the Sierras and Coast Ranges in California and Oregon. |
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