Kingdom Animalia Class Insecta Family Pterophoridae Scientific name Hepalastis pumilio | Phylum Arthropoda Order Lepidoptera Genus Hepalastis (disputed) Rank Species | |
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Similar Exelastis, Megalorhipida leucodactyla, Sphenarches anisodactylus, Butterflies and moths, Stenoptilodes taprobanes | ||
Hepalastis pumilio is a moth of the Pterophoridae family. It has worldwide tropical distribution, including Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Guadeloupe, Jamaica, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Surinam, Japan, Micronesia, South Africa the Virgin Islands as well as Queensland and New Guinea.
Contents
The wingspan is 12–15 mm. Adults are on wing in March, April and June.
Larvae have been recorded feeding on Desmodium incanum, Alysicarpus vaginalis and Oxalis sp.
Description
Head appressedly scaled, brown. Palps slender, a little longer than eye diameter. Antennae markings poorly defined ringed, pale brown and pale ochreous-brown; shortly ciliated. Thorax brown. Tegulae pale-brown. Mesothorax ochreous-white. Abdomen brown. Legs with two pairs of spurs of equal length. Forewings cleft from two thirds, yellowish red-brown. Markings dark-brown, consisting of a discal spot, an indistinct spot at half the length of the cell. Some darkening along the costa near the apex of the first and second lobe. Fringes grey-brown along the outer margin of the first lobe with a basal line of dark scales in the whitish-tinged fringe. At apex of second lobe and along the dorsum four other scale groups, forming an uninterrupted row towards the base of the wing. Underside reddish brown. Hindwings pale reddish brown. Fringes grey-brown. Underside pale brown. Venous scales ferruginous to ferruginous-brown, in a double row. The costal row extends far into the second lobe, the dorsal row short.
Taxonomy
The genus Hepalastis is often treated as a synonym of Exelastis.