![]() | Fruit Piercing Moth (one synonym : Oraesia metallescens Guenée, 1852) CALPINAE, EREBIDAE, NOCTUOIDEA | (donherbisonevans@yahoo.com) and Stella Crossley |
drawing by Frederic Moore, listed as Oręsia emarginata,
The Lepidoptera of Ceylon, Volume 3 (1884), Plate 153, fig. 2a,
image courtesy of Biodiversity Heritage Library,
digitized by Smithsonian Libraries.
The Caterpillars of this species are dark green, with two rows of yellow spots along the back, and red spiracles. The prolegs are reduced.
The caterpillars have been found feeding on plants in MENISPERMACEAE, including
The caterpillars pupate in a sparse silken cocoon between leaves of the foodplant.
The adult moths are brown, with a dark mark near the middle of the hind margin, and sometimes yellow markings at the tornus of each forewing. The wingtips are hooked and the hind margin recurved, of each forewing.
The hindwings are plain brown, fading toward the bases. The females are more brightly coloured than the males. The wingspan is about 4 cms.
The adult moths damage fruit by piecing the skin to suck the juice.
The species has been found from east Africa to the Philippines, including
as well as in Australia in
Further reading :
Johan Christian Fabricius,
Entomologia Systematica Emendata et Aucta,
Volume 3, Part 2 (1793), p. 82, No. 240.
Frederic Moore,
The Lepidoptera of Ceylon,
L. Reeve, London, Volume 3 (1884), p. 76-77, and also
Plate 153, figs. 2, 2a, 2b.
![]() caterpillar | ![]() butterflies | ![]() Lepidoptera | ![]() moths | ![]() caterpillar |
(written 28 November 2012, updated 24 October 2024)