Scopula helcita

Scopula helcita
Illustration by Dru Drury
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Geometridae
Genus: Scopula
Species: S. helcita
Binomial name
Scopula helcita
(Linnaeus, 1763)[1]
Synonyms
  • Papilio (Danaus) helcita Linnaeus, 1763
  • Aletis helcita
  • Aletis druryi Butler, 1878
  • Phalaena fascelis Linnaeus, 1764
  • Papilio fuscofasciatus Goeze, 1779
  • Phalaena helcitaria Turton, 1802
  • Phalaena macularia Fabricius, 1781
  • Aletis rubricaput Swinhoe, 1904
  • Aletis contractimargo Prout, 1916
  • Aletis dissoluta Gaede, 1917

Scopula helcita is a moth of the family Geometridae. It is found in Cameroon, the Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa and Uganda.[2]

The larvae feed on Oxyanthus unilocularis and Blighia unijugata.

Description

Upper Side. Antennae black and setaceous. Head, thorax, and abdomen black, the two last having a row of white spots running along the middle, and another on each side down to the anus. Wings fine dark red. Almost half the anterior next the tips being black, with five oval white spots thereon; three of which being the largest are joined together, the other two, being small and behind, are at a little distance apart. Posterior wings with a broad black border running from the upper to the abdominal corners, whereon are placed eight oval white spots at equal distances, two, being the outermost, very small and close together.

Under Side. Palpi yellow. Tongue spiral. Legs, breast, and sides black, spotted and streaked with white. Abdomen yellow. Wings coloured and marked as on the upper side. Margins of the wings entire. Wing-span nearly 3½ inches (87 mm).[3]

Subspecies

References

  1. Sihvonen, P., 2005: Phylogeny and classification of the Scopulini moths (Lepidoptera: Geometridae, Sterrhinae). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 143: 473–530.
  2. Afro Moths
  3. Drury, Dru (1837). Westwood, John, ed. Illustrations of Exotic Entomology 3. p. 41. pl. XXIX.


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