Diphthera festiva | |
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Scientific classification ![]() | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Arthropoda |
Class: | Insecta |
Order: | Lepidoptera |
Superfamily: | Noctuoidea |
Family: | Nolidae |
Genus: | Diphthera |
Species: | D. festiva |
Binomial name | |
Diphthera festiva (Fabricius, 1775) | |
Synonyms | |
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Diphthera festiva, the hieroglyphic moth, is a species of moth in the family Nolidae and is the only moth in its subfamily Diphtherinae. [1] It is found in the tropical and subtropical areas of South America (as far south as Bolivia and Brazil), Central America, North America, and the Caribbean. In North America, the species has a southeastern distribution from South Carolina west to Texas along the Gulf Coast. Strays have been recorded as far north as Michigan and Missouri. [2] The wingspan is 37–48 mm (1.5–1.9 in). This species is occasionally considered a pest on soybeans. [3] It was described by Johan Christian Fabricius in 1775.
The hieroglyphic moth has light yellow-orange forewings with distinctive blue-black metallic lines and three rows of metallic dots parallel to the exterior margin. The hindwing is black with white fringe and the pronotum is yellow orange with three black stripes. The abdomen, legs, and filiform (threadlike) antennae are black. Males and females are alike, except for one noticeable sexual dimorphism: females have four tibial spurs on their hind legs, while males have only two.
The pupae are dark brown to black and around 1.7 cm long. They can be attached to trees or stems in rounded cocoons made of silk and small pieces of plant matter. The cocoons have a vertical exit slit characteristic of the family Nolidae.
The caterpillar has a red-orange head and anal plate and a white body with black rings. There are three or four incomplete black rings per segment that end before the cream-colored underside. The spiracles look like black dots and are located in between the black rings. On some caterpillars, there are also black stripes down the length of the body. The true legs and prolegs are black, and there is an orange spot above the prolegs on each side. The larvae feed in groups and their striking patterns may be aposematic, as reported by Becker and Miller (2002): "One male was tossed towards a gray kingbird, Tyrannus dominicensis (Gmelin), who caught it in the air, returned to its perch, tried to swallow the moth, then spit it out and cleaned its beak against the branch." [4]
Teran (1980) documented one parasitoid wasp of the family Chalcidae on a wild D. festiva caterpillar in Venezuela. [5]
The caterpillars feed mainly on Sterculiaceae, Fabaceae and Malvaceae species and can reach up to 4.5 cm in length.
Host plant records include:
Other species mentioned in the literature (description from Dunford and Barbara 2008): Phyllanthus latifolius (Euphorbiaceae), Boerhaavia diffusa (Nyctaginaceae), Morongia leptoclada (Mimosaceae), Carya sp. (Juglandaceae), Ipomoea batatas (Convolvulaceae), Cocos sp. (Arecaceae), Casuarina equisetifolia (Casuarinaceae), Corchorus hirsutus (Tiliaceae), and Lippia alba (Lamiaceae), and Solanum sp. (Solanaceae). [6]
Formerly assigned to the family Noctuidae by Fibiger and Lafontaine (2005), recent phylogenetic and morphological analysis revealed that the hieroglyphic moth is more closely related to moths in the family Nolidae. [7] In addition to genetic similarity, D. festiva shares the main characteristic that unites Nolids: a rounded silk cocoon with plant matter woven in and a vertical exit slit. The hieroglyphic moth is now placed in its own subfamily, Diphtherinae, which is the sister group to the rest of the families within Nolidae.
The Noctuidae, commonly known as owlet moths, cutworms or armyworms, are a family of moths. They are considered the most controversial family in the superfamily Noctuoidea because many of the clades are constantly changing, along with the other families of the Noctuoidea. It was considered the largest family in Lepidoptera for a long time, but after regrouping Lymantriinae, Catocalinae and Calpinae within the family Erebidae, the latter holds this title now. Currently, Noctuidae is the second largest family in Noctuoidea, with about 1,089 genera and 11,772 species. This classification is still contingent, as more changes continue to appear between Noctuidae and Erebidae.
The Arctiinae are a large and diverse subfamily of moths with around 11,000 species found all over the world, including 6,000 neotropical species. This subfamily includes the groups commonly known as tiger moths, which usually have bright colours, footmen, which are usually much drabber, lichen moths, and wasp moths. Many species have "hairy" caterpillars that are popularly known as woolly bears or woolly worms. The scientific name Arctiinae refers to this hairiness. Some species within the Arctiinae have the word "tussock"' in their common names because they have been misidentified as members of the Lymantriinae subfamily based on the characteristics of the larvae.
Nolidae is a family of moths with about 1,700 described species worldwide. They are mostly small with dull coloration, the main distinguishing feature being a silk cocoon with a vertical exit slit. The group is sometimes known as tuft moths, after the tufts of raised scales on the forewings of two subfamilies, Nolinae and Collomeninae. The larvae also tend to have muted colors and tufts of short hairs.
Noctuoidea is the superfamily of noctuid or "owlet" moths, and has more than 70,000 described species, the largest number of for any Lepidopteran superfamily. Its classification has not yet reached a satisfactory or stable state. Since the end of the 20th century, increasing availability of molecular phylogenetic data for this hugely successful radiation has led to several competing proposals for a taxonomic arrangement that correctly represents the relationships between the major lineages.
The Limacodidae or Eucleidae are a family of moths in the superfamily Zygaenoidea or the Cossoidea; the placement is in dispute. They are often called slug moths because their caterpillars bear a distinct resemblance to slugs. They are also called cup moths because of the shape of their cocoons.
The Aganainae are a small subfamily of moths in the family Erebidae. The adults and caterpillars of this subfamily are typically large and brightly colored, like the related tiger moths. Many of the caterpillars feed on poisonous host plants and acquire toxic cardenolides that make them unpleasant to predators. Like the closely related litter moths, the adults have long, upturned labial palps, and the caterpillars have fully or mostly developed prolegs on the abdomen. The Aganainae are distributed across the tropics and subtropics of the Old World.
Diphtherinae is a monotypic subfamily of moths in the family Nolidae erected by Michael Fibiger and J. Donald Lafontaine in 2005. Its only genus, Diphthera, was erected by Jacob Hübner in 1809. The genus was moved from Noctuidae in 2013 after the phylogenetic analysis of Reza Zahiri et al. (2013).
Autographa precationis is a moth of the family Noctuidae. It is found in eastern and central North America.
Trigonodes hyppasia, the triangles or semi-looper, is a moth in the family Erebidae. The species was first described by Pieter Cramer in 1779. It is largely cosmopolitan, found throughout Borneo, Fiji, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, São Tomé and Príncipe, Taiwan, Thailand, Zimbabwe, northern Australia, and almost all African countries.
Amyna axis, the oriental eight-spot, is a moth of the family Noctuidae. The species was first described by Achille Guenée in 1852.
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); litter moths (Herminiinae); tiger, lichen, and wasp moths (Arctiinae); tussock moths (Lymantriinae), including the arctic woolly bear moth ; piercing moths ; micronoctuoid moths (Micronoctuini); snout moths (Hypeninae); and zales, though many of these common names can also refer to moths outside the Erebidae. Some of the erebid moths are called owlets.
The Erebinae are a subfamily of moths in the family Erebidae erected by William Elford Leach in 1815. Erebine moths are found on all continents except Antarctica, but reach their greatest diversity in the tropics. While the exact number of species belonging to the Erebinae is not known, the subfamily is estimated to include around 10,000 species. Some well-known Erebinae include underwing moths (Catocala) and witch moths (Thermesiini). Many of the species in the subfamily have medium to large wingspans, up to nearly 30 cm in the white witch moth, which has the widest wingspan of all Lepidoptera. Erebine caterpillars feed on a broad range of plants; many species feed on grasses and legumes, and a few are pests of castor bean, sugarcane, rice, as well as pistachios and blackberries.
The Micronoctuini are a tribe of moths in the family Erebidae that includes about 400 described species. Typical species in the tribe have bifine hindwing venation and are smaller than those in other noctuoid moths. Micronoctua karsholti is the smallest of all species in the superfamily Noctuoidea.
Coelodasys unicornis, the unicorn caterpillar moth, unicorn prominent or variegated prominent, is a species of moth in the family Notodontidae. It was first described by James Edward Smith in 1797 and is found in North America south of the Arctic.
The Rivulinae are a subfamily of moths in the family Erebidae described by Augustus Radcliffe Grote in 1895. Caterpillars in the subfamily typically have long, barbed hairs and have full prolegs on abdominal segments 3 through 6. The adults have a unique microsculpturing proboscis.
Baileya ophthalmica, the eyed baileya, is a nolid moth. The species was first described by Achille Guenée in 1852. It is found in North America.
Meganola minuscula, the confused meganola, is a nolid moth. The species was first described by Philipp Christoph Zeller in 1872. It is found in North America.
Barasa acronyctoides is a moth of the family Nolidae first described by Francis Walker in 1862. It is found in Oriental region and east to Sulawesi and Fiji.
Maceda mansueta is a moth of the family Nolidae first described by Francis Walker in 1857. It is found in Japan, Sri Lanka, Borneo, India (Andamans), Malaysia, New Guinea, Fiji, Australia, Réunion and the Seychelles.
Amyna stricta, the eight-spot moth, is a species of owlet moth in the family Noctuidae. It is found in North, Central, and South America.