''Cleora injectaria'' is a

moth Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of w ...

of the family

Geometridae The geometer moths are moths belonging to the family Geometridae of the insect order Lepidoptera, the moths and butterflies. Their scientific name derives from the Ancient Greek ''geo'' γεω (derivative form of or "the earth"), and ''met ...

described by Francis Walker in 1860. It is found in the tropical regions of the

Indomalayan The Indomalayan realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms. It extends across most of South and Southeast Asia and into the southern parts of East Asia. Also called the Oriental realm by biogeographers, Indomalaya spreads all over the Indi ...

and

Australasian realm The Australasian realm is a biogeographic realm that is coincident with, but not (by some definitions) the same as, the geographical region of Australasia. The realm includes Australia, the island of New Guinea (comprising Papua New Guinea and ...

s, up to

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...

and

New Caledonia ) , anthem = "" , image_map = New Caledonia on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg , map_alt = Location of New Caledonia , map_caption = Location of New Caledonia , mapsize = 290px , subdivision_type = Sovereign st ...

Description

The

wingspan The wingspan (or just span) of a bird or an airplane is the distance from one wingtip to the other wingtip. For example, the Boeing 777–200 has a wingspan of , and a wandering albatross (''Diomedea exulans'') caught in 1965 had a wingspan of ...

is about 36–50 mm. Adults are greyish or pale brown with variable complicated darker markings, with about nine color morphs. It is known that there are about nine different color morphs in the ''C. alienaria'' complex - with the black and white banded forms, more abundant than grey, brown and white forms, plain forms and black discal spot forms. The larvae feed on mangrove vegetation of ''

Rhizophora ''Rhizophora'' is a genus of tropical mangrove trees, sometimes collectively called true mangroves. The most notable species is the red mangrove (''Rhizophora mangle'') but some other species and a few natural hybrids are known. ''Rhizophora'' sp ...

'', ''

Avicennia ''Avicennia'' is a genus of flowering plants currently placed in the bear's breeches family, Acanthaceae. It contains mangrove trees, which occur in the intertidal zones of estuarine areas and are characterized by its "pencil roots", which are a ...

'', ''

Excoecaria ''Excoecaria'' is a plant genus of the family Euphorbiaceae, formally described by Linnaeus in 1759. The genus is native to the Old World Tropics (Africa, southern Asia, northern Australia, and assorted oceanic islands). Etymology Genus name, ...

'' and ''

Xylocarpus ''Xylocarpus'' is a genus of plants in the mahogany family (Meliaceae). It includes two or three species of mangroves, native to coastal mangrove forests of the Western and Central Indo-Pacific, from eastern Africa to Tonga Tonga (, ; ) ...

'' species.

Color morphs

Cleora injectaria (15747964297).jpg Cleora injectaria (12213185743).jpg Cleora injectaria (12213334714).jpg Cleora injectaria (23363461313).jpg Cleora injectaria (37825540112).jpg Cleora injectaria (4457852587).jpg Cleora injectaria (6055649994).jpg Cleora injectaria (6055646266).jpg

References

Cleora Moths of Asia Moths of Oceania Moths described in 1860 {{Boarmiini-stub