Appearance
The hieroglyphic moth has light yellow-orange forewings with distinctive blue-black metallic lines and three rows of metallic dots parallel to the exterior margin. The hindwing is black with white fringe and the pronotum is yellow orange with three black stripes. The abdomen, legs, and filiform antennae are black. Males and females are alike, except for one noticeable sexual dimorphism: females have four tibial spurs on their hind legs, while males have only two.The pupae are dark brown to black and around 1.7 cm long. They can be attached to trees or stems in rounded cocoons made of silk and small pieces of plant matter. The cocoons have a vertical exit slit characteristic of the family Nolidae.
The caterpillar has a red-orange head and anal plate and a white body with black rings. There are three or four incomplete black rings per segment that end before the cream-colored underside. The spiracles look like black dots and are located in between the black rings. On some caterpillars, there are also black stripes down the length of the body. The true legs and prolegs are black, and there is an orange spot above the prolegs on each side.
Reproduction
Host plant records include:⤷ Sterculiaceae:
⤷ *''Melochia corchorifolia'' - chocolateweed
⤷ *''Melochia pyrimidata'' - pyramid flower
⤷ *''Melochia tomentosa'' - teabush
⤷ *''Waltheria indica'' - sleepy morning
⤷ Fabaceae:
⤷ *''Lespedeza thunbergii'' - Thunberg's bushclover
⤷ *''Glycine max'' - soybean
⤷ *''Schrankia portoricensis''
⤷ Malvaceae:
⤷ *''Malvastrum spicatum''
⤷ *''Sida'' sp.
Other species mentioned in the literature : ''Phyllanthus latifolius'' , ''Boerhaavia diffusa'' , ''Morongia leptoclada'' , ''Carya'' sp. , ''Ipomoea batatas'' , ''Cocos'' sp. , ''Casuarina equisetifolia'' , ''Corchorus hirsutus'' , and ''Lippia alba'' , and ''Solanum'' sp. .
Food
The larvae feed in groups and their striking patterns may be aposematic, as reported by Becker and Miller : "One male was tossed towards a gray kingbird, Tyrannus dominicensis , who caught it in the air, returned to its perch, tried to swallow the moth, then spit it out and cleaned its beak against the branch."The caterpillars feed mainly on Sterculiaceae, Fabaceae and Malvaceae species and can reach up to 4.5 cm in length.
References:
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