Delgamma pangonia (Guenée, 1852)
Strawberry Cutworm
(previously known as Bendis pangonia)
CATOCALINI,   EREBINAE,   EREBIDAE,   NOCTUOIDEA
 
Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley


(Photo: courtesy of Buck Richardson, Kuranda, Queensland)

This Caterpillar is humped, and is grey dotted with brown. It has the first two pairs of prolegs reduced. The head is pale pink with dark lines. The caterpillar is a pest in places, having been reported to feed on:

  • Strawberry ( Fragaria × ananassa, ROSACEAE ), and
  • Zebrawood ( Connarus, OXALIDACEAE ).

    Pupation occurs in a sparse cocoon in some leaves on the foodplant or on the ground. The pupa has a white bloom.


    (Photo: courtesy of CSIRO/CNC/CBG Photography Group, Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, University of Guelph)

    The adult moth of this species has brown wings, each with a broad pale margin. The forewings also have a dark triangle at the tip each wing. The wingspan is about 4 cms.

    The species occurrs across the tropics, including

  • Borneo,
  • Philippines,
  • Singapore,
  • Sri Lanka, and
  • Thailand,

    as well as in Australia in

  • Queensland.


    Further reading

    Achille Guenée,
    Noctuélites III,
    in Boisduval & Guenée: Histoire Naturelle des Insectes; Spécies Général des Lépidoptères,
    Volume 9, Part 7 (1852), p. 214, No. 1616.

    Buck Richardson,
    Tropical Queensland Wildlife from Dusk to Dawn Science and Art,
    LeapFrogOz, Kuranda, 2015, p. 131.

    Alberto Zilli,
    Remarks on the genus Delgamma Moore (Lepidoptera, Noctuidae), with description of a new species from South East Asia,
    Transactions of the Lepidopterological Society of Japan,
    Volume 51, Part 4 (September 2000), pp. 309-315.


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    (updated 5 March 2013, 12 April 2024)