Moth Of The Week

Moth of the Week

Macrocilix maia Moth

Macrocilix maia

The Macrocilix maia moth is a part of the family Drepanidae. It was first described in 1888 by John Henry Leech as a part of the genus Argyri. It has no recognized common name and is mainly called by its scientific name.

Description

The forewings and hindwings are a matching cream color and slightly translucent. The main attraction of the wings are two mirror images of a fly, one on each forewing. The body of the “fly” is black with red eyes/head and a white accent in the middle of its abdomen. They are outlined in amber and black with amber specks on the outer edge of the forewing called the outer margin. The hindwings have an amber splotch on the innermost edge, called the inner margin, that transitions to black and white as it reaches the corner. This is meant to look like a bird dropping that the flies are eating.

The body is a matching amber/dark brown as the bird dropping to blend in. The antennae are cream.

Wingspan Range: 3.7 - 4.5 cm (≈1.46 - 1.77 in)

Diet and Habitat This moth mainly, feeds on the Chinese Cork Oak as larva and do not feed as adults.

They are found around Asia in Borneo, China, India, Japan, Korea, Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, and Taiwan. This moth prefers habitats like forests and jungles.

Mating The eggs are laid close to the host plant and adults are emerge in May. Mating season is presumably around this time.

Predators This moth is most recognizable by its use of mimicry. It’s wings resemble flies eating bird droppings to make it appear unappealing to predators. It also gives off a bad smell to further sell the act.

Fun Fact The type of camouflage this moths uses is called Batesian mimicry. Named after Henry Walter Bates, Batesian mimicry is when a palatable animal, or one without toxins or poison, evolves to look like an unpalatable/undesirable animal to protect itself from predators.

(Source: Wikipedia, Moth Identification)

i have a question about tolype moths; they have a spot of curly, wiry hairs on their back. what is it? i tried to look it up and only found one person claiming females tore it off to protect eggs but they didnt sound confident. is it soft?

Hi! So sorry for the late reply.

The females do in fact use scales (hair) from their thoraxes to cover their eggs. However, I can’t find if they specifically use the dark hairs on their back. They may also use the white hair on their front or a mix of both, but I can’t find a source that specifies.

I also can’t find if the dark scales are soft, but I would avoid touching them as the caterpillars of the large tolype moth are covered poisonous spines. It is unclear if the adult moth has any toxins but it’s better to be safe than sorry!

Hope this helped! :]

Moth of the Week

Hornet Moth

Sesia apiformis

The hornet moth is a part of the family Sesiidae or the family of clearwing moths. They get their common name predictably from how they mimic the appearance of the hornet. This type of mimicry is called Batesian mimicry, which is when a harmless species mimics the appearance of a unpalatable or defended species to protect themselves from predators. It was first described in 1759 by Carl Alexander Clerck under the name Sphinx apiformis.

Description This moth uses what called Batesian mimicry to resemble the hornet so predators do not want to eat it for fear of being stung. The adult moths have clear wings with yellow and striped black bodies. The number of stripes varies, females have two stripes while males have three. They are about the size of a hornet with the same jerky flight pattern when disturbed. The only difference is the hornet moth has more yellow and lacks the waist between the abdomen and the thorax.

Wingspan Range: 34 - 50 mm (≈1.34 - 1.97 in)

Females are larger than males

Diet and Habitat The larvae eat several species of poplar trees such as apsen (Populus tremula), black poplar (Populus nigra), and goat willow (Salix caprea). They prefer trees surrounded by heavy vegetation as those kinds show more evidence of infestation from larvae burrowing into trees. Adults do not eat.

This moth ranges over mainland Europe, Great Britain, and parts of the Middle East. It had also been introduced to America and Canada. They prefer open habitats such as parks, hedgerows, golf courses, quarries, fens, pond edges, and pits.

Mating The female moths attract males using special posterior glands to emit pheromones, usually soon after emergence. The male doesn’t seem to have any courtship behaviors as the two sexes are likely to begin mating as soon as they come into contact. Both males and females mate multiple times with different partners before the female beings laying her eggs.

Females prefer to lay eggs on old or isolated trees surrounded by vegetation. Females can lay from hundreds to thousands of eggs and exhibits no parental care. When comparing the number of eggs laid to the number of adults emerging per year, it is clear the large number of eggs laid is to make up for the large mortality rate between the egg and adult stages.

Predators This species of moth is primarily preyed on by magpies and great tits. Interestingly, these birds do not eat hornets despite eating this moth. An explanation for this is since these birds don’t eat hornets, the mimicry is less effective as they have any bad experiences with insects of this coloration. In fact, it can be suggested that the black and yellow coloration has the opposite effect: once the birds realize this moth is harmless and can be easily seen, they begin to actively seek them out.

Fun Fact The hornet moth is seen as a pest in the eastern United Kingdom due to a large dieback of poplar trees from larvae burrowing into them. However this dieback is not inherently caused by the larvae but instead from drought and human influences, which the larvae increase the effect of.

(Source: Wikipedia, Butterfly Conservation)

Moth of the Week

African Wild Silk Moth

Gonometa postica

The African wild silk moth is a part of the family Lasiocampidae. It was first described in 1855 by Francis Walker. It is also known as the Brandwurm in its larval stage in Afrikaans, Kweena in its pupal stage in Tshwana, and Molopo moth/mot in English and Afrikaans.

Description The female of this moth is much longer and larger than the male due to having to carry eggs. The male is about half the size of the female and much thinner.

The female has a light brown abdomen with a dark brown thorax and head. The female’s forewings are striped light brown, dark brown, and gray. The hindwings are a yellow-brown with a dark brown edge.

The male has a dark body and wings with a transparent portion of the hindwing.

Female Forewing Range: 35–42 mm (

Male Forewing Range: 21–25 mm (

Diet and Habitat Larva of this species eat Acacia erioloba, A. tortilis, A. melifera, Burkea africana, Brachystegia spp., and Prosopis glandulosa. The larva will feed from the same tree it’s entire life unless there are two many other caterpillars. When there is a large number of caterpillars, they may defoliate the whole tree and the larva must move in order to not starve.

This moth mainly inhabits savannas with many Acacia trees, especially in drier areas. These moths contribute to the Acacia environment by providing food to predators and nutrients to plants through feces. Cocoons are usually found on Acacia tees.

Mating Males detect females’ mating pheromones with their antennae. Males fly to the females because the females are weighed down by the eggs. The female contains about 200 eggs which are laid on the food plant after fertilization. Eggs hatch in about two weeks. Eggs are laid in clumps and the newly hatched caterpillars grow as a group and become more solitary with time.

Predators This moth is preyed on by parasitic wasps and flies. These insects lay their eggs on the caterpillar and feed off of its resources until the moth larva cocoons. The parasites live off the cocoon and grow to adulthood while killing the pupa. Specifically, these larva are subject to parasitism by Diptera and Hymenoptera, the most common parasitoids being Palexorista species from the Tachinidae and Goryphus species from the Ichneumonidae.[6]

To combat external predators and weather, the caterpillars build a tough cocoon. Caterpillars and their cocoons are also covered in stinging hairs to deter predators from touching them. Female cocoons are larger than male cocoons.

Fun Fact In Madagascar, wild silk has been harvested for centuries, and this knowledge has been introduced to southern Africa. The cocoons are harvested commercially in Namibia, Botswana, Kenya and South Africa, and the species also occurs in Zimbabwe and Mozambique. They are difficult to harvest due to the cocoons being covered in calcium oxalate. Oxford University discovered and patented a method known as demineralizing using a warm solution of EDTA (ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid) that soften the cocoons by dissolving the sericin. This lets the silk unravel without weakening it.

- Wild African silk moth cocoons are also used as ankle rattles in southern Africa by San and Bantu tribes. They are filled with materials such as fine gravel, seeds, glass beads, broken sea shells, or pieces of ostrich eggshell.

- Furthermore, the cocoons have long been known to cause the death of cattle, antelope and other ruminants in the Kalahari. During drought periods, the cocoons are eaten, probably because they resemble acacia pods. The silk is indigestible and blocks the rumen of multiple-stomach animals, causing starvation.

- Finally, the protein found in this species’s slik contains many basic amino acids making it a potentially useful biomaterial in cell and tissue culture.

(Source: Wikipedia, SANBI)

Moth of the Week

Canary-shouldered Thorn

Ennomos alniaria

The canary-shouldered thorn was first described in 1758 by Carl Linnaeus. It is a part of the family Geometridae. This moth gets its name from its bright yellow coloring.

Description This moth has a bright canary yellow head and thorax. The forewings and hindwings are a ochre yellow with gray speckles. Both the forewings and the hindwings are a scalloped shape and both have a single dot on each wing called “discal spots” with the spots being larger on the hindwing. The forewings have two curved lines going across them.

This moth looks very similar to the Dusky Thorn, August Thorn and September Thorn moths.

Wingspan Range: 34 - 42 mm (≈1.34 - 1.65 in)

Forewing Range: 16 - 20 mm (≈0.63 - 0.79 in)

Diet and Habitat The larva of this species feed off of deciduous trees such as downy birch, silver birch, alder, goat willow, elms, and limes.

This moth’s range stretches from Russia and the Caucuses region in the east to Western Europe in the west and from Fennoscandia in the north to the northern Mediterranean in the south. It has also been introduced into British Columbia. The prefer habitats of woodland, scrub, parks and rural gardens.

Mating This moth has one generation per year. They can be seen flying from July and October and presumably mate during this time.

Predators This species is nocturnal and presumably majorly preyed on my nighttime predators such as bats. However it does use a form a camouflage as larva. The caterpillars of this species resemble dead twigs. This may also help against daytime predators.

Fun Fact The canary-shouldered thorn is attracted to light.

(Source: Wikipedia, Butterfly Conservation, Moths of Britain)

Moth of the Week

Salt Marsh Moth

Estigmene acrea

The salt marsh moth is a part of the family Erebidae. This species was first described in 1773 by Dru Drury. It is also known as the acrea moth.

Description Both male and female moths have white heads, thoraxes, and forewings with a varying pattern of black spots on the forewings, with some moths having no pattern at all. They also share an orange-yellow abdomen with a vertical line of back dots. On the male, the hindwings are the same organge yellow while on females the hindwings are white. Both males and females have three or four black dots on each hindwing.

Wingspan Range: 4.5 - 6.8 cm (≈1.77 - 2.68 in)

Diet and Habitat The caterpillar was first thought to be a pest to salt-grass, but in fact it prefers weeds, vegetables, and field crops such as dandelions, cabbage, cotton, walnuts, apple, tobacco, pea, potato, clovers, and maize. Adults do not feed.

This moth is found in North America, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Colombia, and Mexico. It prefers open habitats such as openings in woods, thickets, farm fields, grasslands, and marshes. It is called the “salt marsh moth” because it is common in coastal salt marshes (tidal marshes) along Pacific, Atlantic, and Gulf coasts.

Mating This species of moth does not emit pheromones from the tip of its abdomen but instead from its throat or the to of its abdomen. These moths are seen from May to August but can be seen all year in southern Florida and Texas. It is presumably during May and August they mate in most parts of their range while they mate all year round in Florida and Texas.

Yellowish eggs are laid in clusters on the host plant leaves. Females usually produce 400 to 1000 eggs in one or more clusters. It is possible to find a single egg cluster containing 1200 eggs. Eggs hatch in four to five days.

Predators This species is frequently parasitized as larvae, usually by flies in the Tachinidae family. In Arizona, the most common parasites were Exorista mellea and Leschenaultia adusta while two other parasitic flies were also seen: Gymnocarcelia ricinorum and Lespesia archippivora.

Both the larval and egg stages are oararzitized by Hymenopteran parasitoids such as Apanteles diacrisiae; Therion fuscipenne, T. morio, Casinaria genuina, Hyposoter rivalis; Psychophagus omnivorus, Tritneptis hemerocampae Vierick; Anastatus reduvii; and Trichogramma semifumatum.

A cytoplasmic polyhedrosis virus is known to harm this species but there are little data on its importance and effect.

General predators such as lady beetles, softwinged flower beetles, and assassin bugs prey on these caterpillars, but are not thought to have a large impact on population.

Fun Fact This species has 4 subspecies: Estigmene acrea acrea, Estigmene acrea arizonensis (Rothschild, (1910)) (Arizona), Estigmene acrea mexicana (Walker, (1865)) (Mexico), Estigmene acrea columbiana (Rothschild, (1910)) (Colombia).

(Source: Wikipedia, University of Florida, Missouri Department of Conservation)