Cometaster pyrula

Faint owl moth
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Superfamily: Noctuoidea
Family: Erebidae
Subfamily: Erebinae
Tribe: Hypopyrini
Genus: Cometaster
Species: C. pyrula
Binomial name
Cometaster pyrula
(Hopffer, 1857)[1]
Synonyms
  • Spirama pyrula Hopffer, 1858
  • Spirama lucidus Felder, 1874
  • Spirama lucida

Cometaster pyrula, commonly known as the Faint owl moth or Ying-yang moth, is a species of moth of the Erebidae family. It is monotypic in its genus and endemic to Africa.[2]

Distribution

It is found in Eastern and Southern Africa, mainly in Botswana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.[3]

Biological control agent

In October 2004, and as part of a biological control project, larvae of this moth from South Africa were released in Queensland, Australia, in order to keep under control the type of acacia Acacia nilotica subsp. indica, a major invasive species in the Mitchell Grass Downs.[4]

References

  1. African Moths; Cometaster pyrula, (Hopffer, 1857)
  2. "Genus details: Cometaster". Lepidoptera genus database. Natural History Museum. Retrieved 11 November 2015.
  3. African Moths; Cometaster pyrula, (Hopffer, 1857)
  4. Rangaswamy Muniappan, Gadi V. P. Reddy & Anantanarayanan Raman (eds.), Biological Control of Tropical Weeds Using Arthropods, Cambridge University Press 2009, pg. 26

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Wednesday, November 11, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.