Because Inaturalist records have associated photos, I sampled some of these with two ideas in mind.
1) Photos sometimes exhibit damage (e.g., evident bat/bird attack) or wear. This will be more prevalent as the moths age. So, if you examined a set of images from one area, recorded in different seasons (same seasonality), and found the most perfect moths in May-June, and beat-up moths in Aug-Sep, you could infer something about the life cycle. I looked at 17 photo records from one region--Costa Rica. No pattern. Of course the sample size is tiny, and there are confounding variables.
2) Photos could be examined for small morphological variations, to see if there is a clinal change - e.g., a gradual change in some feature on a north-south gradient. I looked a set of 18 images, half from the northern extent of ww range, half from the most southerly extent. No pattern. But, 1) the sample size is small; 2) the photos are of varying quality and difficult to compare; 3) I have little idea about how to evaluate pertinent features. A much better study could be done with museum specimens, or high quality images of them. If only the British Museum were convenient ...
1) Photos sometimes exhibit damage (e.g., evident bat/bird attack) or wear. This will be more prevalent as the moths age. So, if you examined a set of images from one area, recorded in different seasons (same seasonality), and found the most perfect moths in May-June, and beat-up moths in Aug-Sep, you could infer something about the life cycle. I looked at 17 photo records from one region--Costa Rica. No pattern. Of course the sample size is tiny, and there are confounding variables.
2) Photos could be examined for small morphological variations, to see if there is a clinal change - e.g., a gradual change in some feature on a north-south gradient. I looked a set of 18 images, half from the northern extent of ww range, half from the most southerly extent. No pattern. But, 1) the sample size is small; 2) the photos are of varying quality and difficult to compare; 3) I have little idea about how to evaluate pertinent features. A much better study could be done with museum specimens, or high quality images of them. If only the British Museum were convenient ...