Kingdom Animalia Class Insecta Superfamily Noctuoidea Scientific name Nyctemera lacticinia | Phylum Arthropoda Order Lepidoptera Family Erebidae Rank Species | |
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Similar Nyctemera, Nyctemera adversata, Utetheisa lotrix, Utetheisa pulchelloides, Creatonotos transiens | ||
Nyctemera lacticinia, the common nyctemera, is a species of moth of the family Erebidae. It is found in Japan, from the Oriental tropics of India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar to Taiwan, Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo.
Description
The wingspan is about 45 mm. Male absent a tuft of hair on the tibia of fore leg. Head, collar and thorax yellowish white and spotted with black. Abdomen white where the extremity is yellowish. Three black spots on the first segment and slight black bands on the next sex above can be seen. Two paired series of lateral black spots. Fore wing hair-brownish. A broad white streak found on the base of inner margin. An oblique post-medial band of five white spots present. Hind wings white with a broad marginal brown band with irregularly curved inner edge.
Larva dull reddish with a dorsal and two lateral series of radiating tufts of fine black hairs arising from black tubercles. Two long forwardly projecting tufts are present on first somite. Pupa reddish brown where rolled-up leaf.
The larvae feed on Santalum species. The larva is dull red with three rows of verrucae with black hair on each side. It has hair pencils directed forward from the thoracic area.