Eudocima aurantia

Fruit-sucking moth
	Female, dorsal view
	Male, dorsal view
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Superfamily:	Noctuoidea
Family:	Erebidae
Genus:	Eudocima
Species:	E. aurantia
Binomial name
	Eudocima aurantia; (Moore, 1877)
Synonyms
	Ophideres aurantia Moore, 1877; Adris rutilus Moore, 1881; Khadira aurantia Moore; Holloway, 1976;

Eudocima aurantia, the fruit-sucking moth,[1] is a moth of the family Erebidae. The species was first described by Frederic Moore in 1877. It is found across south-east Asia, from Sri-Lanka to northern Queensland, Australia. It is also present on the Andamans.

Female, ventral view

Male, ventral view

Description

The wingspan is about 90–120 mm. Palpi with third joint long and spatulate at extremity. Forewings with produced apex to a rounded lobe. Head and thorax ferrous colored, with plum-color suffusion. Abdomen orange. Forewing ferrous with dark stria and slight purple bloom. The veins speckled with blue. Reniform green and indistinct. There is a dark line runs from apex to center of inner margin, sometimes with green patches beyond it. Hindwings orange with a large black lunule beyond lower angle of cell. A submarginal patch can be seen between veins 1 and 2. Ventral side orange. Forewings with black mark below angle of cell and beyond the cell between veins 3 and 5. Hindwings with lunule and patch of upperside.[2]

Ecology

Larva has pinkish grey dorsal surface suffused darker to a V-shaped yellow band. It has black spiracles and marbled white-ringed rufous-orange ocellate marks with three ferrous lines crossing them. The larvae feed on Cocculus species. The adults are a pest on various fruits. They pierce the fruit in order to suck the juice.[3]

Adults and caterpillars both harm fruits, by piercing, sucking juice and eating flesh. Fruits may show pre-mature fall due to the attack. Parasitoids such as Telenomus lucullus and Euplectrus melanocephalus used as controlling measures.[4]

References

http://bie.ala.org.au/species/urn:lsid:biodiversity.org.au:afd.taxon:2c8cb215-5d63-42d2-b59f-62638ff69d38
Hampson, G. F. (1894). The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma: Moths Volume II. Taylor and Francis – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.
Holloway, Jeremy Daniel. "Eudocima [Khadira] aurantia Moore". The Moths of Borneo. Retrieved 18 August 2016.
Herbison-Evans, Don & Crossley, Stella (23 February 2017). "Eudocima aurantia (Moore, 1877) Fruit Sucking Moth". Australian Caterpillars and their Butterflies and Moths. Retrieved 15 January 2019.

External links

Species info

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[1] ttp://bie.ala.org.au/species/urn:lsid:biodiversity.org.au:afd.taxon:2c8cb215-5d63-42d2-b59f-62638ff69d38

[2] Hampson, G. F. (1894). The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma: Moths Volume II. Taylor and Francis – via Biodiversity Heritage Library.

[3] Holloway, Jeremy Daniel. "Eudocima [Khadira] aurantia Moore". The Moths of Borneo. Retrieved 18 August 2016.

[4] Herbison-Evans, Don & Crossley, Stella (23 February 2017). "Eudocima aurantia (Moore, 1877) Fruit Sucking Moth". Australian Caterpillars and their Butterflies and Moths. Retrieved 15 January 2019.