Anomis flava

Anomis flava (Fabricius, 1775)
Cotton Looper
(one synonym : Cosmophila indica Guenée, 1852)
SCOLIOPTERYGINAE, EREBIDAE, NOCTUOIDEA

Don Herbison-Evans
(donherbisonevans@yahoo.com)
and
Stella Crossley

Anomis flava
early instar
(Photo: Don Herbison-Evans, Sydney, New South Wales)

This Caterpillar is long and green, with yellowish bands between segments. It is missing one pair of prolegs, so it moves like a looper, although not related to the true loopers in GEOMETRIDAE.

late instar
(Photo: courtesy of Maria Rosenfelder, Sunshine Coast, Queensland)

The caterpillar is often found in gardens on:

Musk Ockra ( Abelmoschus moschatus ), and

Hibiscus ( Hibiscus rosa-sinensis ),

and is an agricultural pest on :

Kenaf ( Hibiscus cannabinus ), and

Cotton ( Gossypium hirsutum ),

all of MALVACEAE.

The caterpillars are inclined to lie along a vein on the underside of a leaf. The caterpillars damage the leaves of their foodplant in a characteristic pattern.

typical pattern of damage to Hibiscus leaf by Anomis flava caterpillars

Old Chinese drawings of Hibiscus show damage to the leaves that is similar in pattern to this which we observed on the bushes in Sydney (Anomis flava is found in China). The caterpillar grows to a length of about 4 cms.

Macleay Museum, University of Sydney) The Caterpillar pupates in a sparse cocoon in a curled up leaf.

(Photo: courtesy of Maria Rosenfelder, Sunshine Coast, Queensland)

The adult moth is brown, with an outlined pale spot near the middle, and zigzag lines across, each forewing.

The species is superficially similar to Anomis lyona but differs in having curvier lines between the forewing coloured bands.

(Photo: courtesy of CSIRO/BIO Photography Group, Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, University of Guelph,
annotation courtesy of Peter Hendry,)

The eggs are green and flattened. They are laid on the undersides of leaves of a foodplant beside the veins.

underside
(Photo: courtesy of Graeme Cocks, Townsville, Queensland)

The species occurs around most of the world including :

São Tomé and Principe,

Vietnam,

and also in Australia in

Northern Territory,

Victoria, and

South Australia.

head, close-up
(Photo: courtesy of Maria Rosenfelder, Sunshine Coast, Queensland)