''Odonestis pruni'', also known as the plum lappet moth
or the plum eggar,
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 ...
, belonging to the family
Lasiocampidae
The Lasiocampidae are a family of moths also known as eggars, tent caterpillars, snout moths (although this also refers to the Pyralidae), or lappet moths. Over 2,000 species occur worldwide, and probably not all have been named or studied. It i ...
. 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 1758. It is native to
Eurasia
Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelago a ...
.
Description
The wing colour ranges between yellow
and orange, with reddish and brownish markings. On each forewing, there is a distinct white dot in the centre, near which lie two darker bands.
Its wingspan is variably described as between 20-30mm
or 40-60 mm.
Males are paler than females
and, like other members of the genus, smaller.
The caterpillar is between 45mm
and 70mm
long, with a blueish-grey body, brown head and golden lines running up the length of its body. It also may have grey or golden spots.
Taxonomy
The moth was
first described in 1758 by Carl Linnaeus in his
10th edition of the ''Systema Naturae''. It was originally described as ''
bombyx pruni,''
though later reclassified in 1812 as the
sole member of the newly-constructed ''odonestis'' genus. The plum lappet moth has been considered the
type species
In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...
of its genus.
Range
The plum lappet moth has been found across its native Eurasia,
and is distributed across the continent from Japan to central Europe.
However, this moth is not found in
South
South is one of the cardinal directions or Points of the compass, compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west.
Etymology
The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Pro ...
or
Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, south-eastern region of Asia, consistin ...
.
Life history
Life cycle
It lays eggs as either small clusters or individuals.
These eggs hatch in either fall or later summer, and the larvae will survive through the winter and resume growing in the spring and early summer. After that, the caterpillars will enter a cocoon as they
pupate into fully-grown moths.
Depending on the location of the moth population, they will produce between one and two broods a year.
Genetics
Subspecies
As a result of this specie's wide geographic distribution, there are several known subspecies of this moth.
* ''Odonestis pruni pruni'' is distributed across Europe and Russia. It is the palest subspecies, but a darker variant is known to exist in
Sardinia
Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...
and
Corsica
Corsica ( , Upper , Southern ; it, Corsica; ; french: Corse ; lij, Còrsega; sc, Còssiga) is an island in the Mediterranean Sea and one of the 18 regions of France. It is the fourth-largest island in the Mediterranean and lies southeast of ...
.
* ''Odonestis pruni rufescens'', previously also described as o''donestis pruni japonensis'', is distributed across eastern Russia, Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam. It is a darker subspecies. In 1928, o''donestis pruni japonensis'' was described as a separate subspecies living in Japan, but later analysis found it to the same as ''rufescens''.
* ''Odonestis pruni oberthueri'' live in mountainous regions of Tibet, the
Eastern Himalayas
]
The Eastern Himalayas extend from eastern Nepal across Northeast India, Bhutan, the Tibet Autonomous Region to Yunnan in China and northern Myanmar. The climate of this region is influenced by the monsoon of South Asia from June to September. It ...
, and southern China. It is the largest of the species, and daker that the ''pruni'' variety.
Interaction with humans
Pest of crop plants
It is considered to be a
Pest (organism), pest insect, with the larvae living and eating from a variety of stone fruit and alder trees.
In particular, this species is known to cause damage to the leaves of plum, damson,
and cherry trees.
In Japan and China, the caterpillar is also known to eat apple and pear trees.
Gallery
File:Odonestis pruni1.jpg, link=, alt=A dark grey, and slightly fuzzy, caterpillar resting on the stem of a tree. The caterpillar is surrounded by smooth green leaves. , An example of the ''odonestis pruni'' caterpillar.
File:Odonestis pruni.jpg, link=, alt=A dead specimen of dark orange/brown moth, spread out on a white background. , An adult ''odonestis pruni'' with wings fully displayed.
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1644548
Lasiocampidae
Moths described in 1758
Moths of Asia
Moths of Europe