''Dysphania militaris'' is a species of

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 ...

that is found from in the tropical regions of South and Southeast Asian countries such as

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

Andaman Islands The Andaman Islands () are an archipelago in the northeastern Indian Ocean about southwest off the coasts of Myanmar's Ayeyarwady Region. Together with the Nicobar Islands to their south, the Andamans serve as a maritime boundary between th ...

Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...

and

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

. It was first described by

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...

in his 1758 10th edition of ''Systema Naturae''.

Description

Its wingspan is about 80–96 mm. Forewings of male produced, long and narrow. The fovea strongly developed. Head, thorax and abdomen golden yellowish with purplish bands. Forewings with golden-yellow basal half, the outer half deep purplish with its inner edge irregularly sinuous. Two oblique basal purple fascia, where the lower fascia sometimes having a spot detached from it. Two spots found on costa near base. There is an oblique antemedial series of three spots often conjoined. The outer area with two pale blue maculate bands, where the outer ending found at vein 3. Hindwings golden yellow, with a large purple discocellular spot and a spot below the cell. A postmedial lunulate band excurved between veins 3 and 5. A submarginal spot series becoming large conjoined lunulate patches at apex. The spots on the yellow area are very variable.

Ecology and recognition

It flies during the day and because of its bright colours it is often mistaken for a butterfly. Several similar species, including ''

Dysphania subrepleta ''Dysphania subrepleta'' is a species of false tiger moth (genus ''Dysphania'') in the subfamily Geometrinae. Records are from Indo-China and western Malesia including Borneo, with no subspecies listed in the Catalogue of Life, where it is a "pro ...

'', occur in the region and some are very closely related. '' Dysphania alloides'', which was described from the Andaman Islands, was originally considered a subspecies.

Larva A larva (; plural larvae ) is a distinct juvenile form many animals undergo before metamorphosis into adults. Animals with indirect development such as insects, amphibians, or cnidarians typically have a larval phase of their life cycle. The ...

e have been reported to feed on '' Carallia'' species, ''

Kandelia candel ''Kandelia candel'' is a species of mangrove in the family Rhizophoraceae, found around the coasts of South Asia and Southeast Asia, from western India to Borneo. Populations further east, from Vietnam to Japan were formerly included in ''K.&nb ...

'' and ''

Rhodomyrtus tomentosa ''Rhodomyrtus tomentosa'' also known as rose myrtle, is a flowering plant in the family Myrtaceae, native to southern and southeastern Asia, from India, east to southern China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Philippines, and south to Malaysia and S ...

'' plants.Robinson, G. S., P. R. Ackery, I. J. Kitching, G. W. Beccaloni & L. M. Hernández, 2010. ''HOSTS - A Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants''. Natural History Museum, London.
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References

External links

*

''Critters Page''. Archived from th

October 7, 2011. {{Taxonbar, from=Q1318112 Geometrinae