Eudocima aurantia

Eudocima aurantia, the fruit-sucking moth,[1] is a moth of the family Erebidae. The species was first described by 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

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

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]

gollark: Pfft, *defenses*.
gollark: Yet another problem with the event: it's cheaper to destroy and rebuild the snow cannons than it is to repair them.
gollark: Waiting for materials for more expensive weapons, not that they'll probably do much.
gollark: That's what I'm doing. It's great.
gollark: How did you get that without building anything then?

References
  1. http://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. "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.


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