''Lymantria serva'', the ficus tussock moth or serva tussock moth, 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 ...

in the family

Erebidae The Erebidae are a family of moths in the superfamily Noctuoidea. The family is among the largest families of moths by species count and contains a wide variety of well-known macromoth groups. The family includes the underwings ('' Catocala'') ...

. It was described by

Johan Christian Fabricius Johan Christian Fabricius (7 January 1745 – 3 March 1808) was a Danish zoologist, specialising in "Insecta", which at that time included all arthropods: insects, arachnids, crustaceans and others. He was a student of Carl Linnaeus, and is cons ...

in 1793 and is found in

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

Assam Assam (; ) is a state in northeastern India, south of the eastern Himalayas along the Brahmaputra and Barak River valleys. Assam covers an area of . The state is bordered by Bhutan and Arunachal Pradesh to the north; Nagaland and Manipur ...

in India and

Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked Provinces of China, province in Southwest China, the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is ...

in China. It is possibly also found in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

and

Hongkong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

, but these records might be ''

Lymantria iris ''Lymantria iris'' is a species of erebid moth described by Embrik Strand in 1910. It is found in Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in th ...

''.

Description

The length of the forewings is 17–19 mm for males and 26–36 mm for females. In the male, the body color is brownish. The abdomen slightly tinged with crimson. Forewing irrorated (sprinkled) with dark scales. There are indistinct double lunulate antemedial, medial, and postmedial lines present. The black lunule at the end of the cell, but no spot in the cell. Hindwings are pale brownish fuscous. In female, abdomen crimson, with a dark line on vertex and series of lateral black spots, the extremity is brownish. Hindwings with crimson suffused inner area.

Ecology

The larvae feed on ''

Ficus ''Ficus'' ( or ) is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes and hemiepiphytes in the family Moraceae. Collectively known as fig trees or figs, they are native throughout the tropics with a few species extending in ...

'' species and ''

Shorea robusta ''Shorea robusta'', the sal tree, sāla, shala, sakhua, or sarai, is a species of tree in the family Dipterocarpaceae. The tree is native to India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Tibet and across the Himalayan regions . Evolution Fossil evidence from lig ...

''. The larvae have an exceptionally long development period with 10 to 12

instar An instar (, from the Latin '' īnstar'', "form", "likeness") is a developmental stage of arthropods, such as insects, between each moult (''ecdysis''), until sexual maturity is reached. Arthropods must shed the exoskeleton in order to grow or ass ...

s. The

sex pheromone Sex pheromones are pheromones released by an organism to attract an individual of the same species, encourage them to mate with them, or perform some other function closely related with sexual reproduction. Sex pheromones specifically focus on ind ...

2-Methyl-(Z)-7-octadecene is known to be emitted by ''L. serva'' and

allopatric Allopatric speciation () – also referred to as geographic speciation, vicariant speciation, or its earlier name the dumbbell model – is a mode of speciation that occurs when biological populations become geographically isolated from ...

with ''

Lymantria lucescens ''Lymantria'' is a genus of tussock moths in the family Erebidae. They are widely distributed throughout Europe, Japan, India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Java, and Celebes. The genus was erected by Jacob Hübner in 1819. Description In the male, the ...

''.

References

Moths described in 1793 Lymantria {{Lymantriidae-stub