''Trabala vishnou'', the rose-myrtle lappet 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 ...

of 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 is found in southern Asia, including

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, Sri Lanka,

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, China, Japan,

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and

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. Four subspecies are recognized.

Description

Adult

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 o ...

is about 67 mm for females and 47 for males. The body colour of the male is apple green. Antennae ochreous brown. The disk of the forewing and the inner margin of the hindwing are whitish. Forewings with a faint pale antemedial line curved below the costa. There is a dark speck at end of cell, and a pale straight oblique postmedial line which becomes medial on the hindwing. Both wings have a series of small submarginal dark spots. The female is yellowish green, which fades to ochreous. Lines and spots of both wings are enlarged and blackish. The spot at the end of the cell of the forewing is large, conspicuous and irrorated (sprinkled) with black scales, and sometimes centered with grey. A reddish-brown patch thickly irrorated with black occupying whole medial inner area from median nervure to inner margin. Cilia of wings are blackish.

Immatures

Rose Myrtle Lappet Moth Caterpiller (Trabala vishnou) (5780289223)

The larva has a yellow head spotted with red and its body colour is brownish grey with long lateral tufts on each somite. First somite is black and grey, other somites are grey. There are paired dorsal and lateral black spots on each somite, from which spring long black hairs. Spots on the thoracic somites are coalescing. Instead of usual coloured caterpillars, there are two morphs which can be found. Some larvae are blackish with a broad white dorsal stripe, the anterior tufts are reddish brown. The other morph is reddish with blue lateral spots. However, the cocoon is ochreous in all morphs with short black hairs projecting from it, which are intensely irritating.

Ecology

Larvae have been reared on '' Populus'' species and also feed on castor, jamun, pomegranate, rose, and sandalwood plants. The

braconid wasp The Braconidae are a family of parasitoid wasps. After the closely related Ichneumonidae, braconids make up the second-largest family in the order Hymenoptera, with about 17,000 recognized species and many thousands more undescribed. One analysis ...

, ''

Cotesia trabalae ''Cotesia'' is a genus of braconid wasps first described by Peter Cameron in 1891. Some species parasitize caterpillars of species considered pests, and are used as biocontrol agents. ''Cotesia congregata'' parasitizes the tomato and the toba ...

'' is a known parasitoid of the moth.

Subspecies

*''Trabala vishnou gigantina'' Yang, 1978 *''Trabala vishnou guttata'' (Matsumura, 1909) *''Trabala vishnou singhala'' Roepke, 1951 *''Trabala vishnou vishnou''

References

External links

Species info
Lasiocampidae {{Lasiocampidae-stub