re.: Banana Waspmoth

[Martin Honey]

Dear All

>Can anyone provide the name for and possibly point to any images available
>of the little dark Syntomid moth with the dark metalic green HW bases that
>regularly shows up on imported bananas here the the frigid north ?

We too get specimens of these beasties in the frigid north, but on the
other side of the pond.

We have records of three species for the UK; Antichloris viridis (Druce),
Antichloris caca (Hubner [please excuse the lack of an umlaut]) and
Antichloris eriphia (Fabricius). I also know of records of A. viridis from
the Faroe Islands (1997, Entomologist's Gazette 48: 84) and Sweden (1996,
Ent. Tidskr. 117: 123-4).

Although all three species look alike (and there are others), there are
characters, especially on the underside of the abdomen and tympanal hoods,
to help distinguish them (Field, 1978, Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology
198:).

Hope this helps

Martin
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Martin R. Honey CBiol MIBiol, Linnaean Butterfly Project
Biodiversity Division, Department of Entomology
The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road
London, SW7 5BD, Great Britain
TELEPHONE: 0171 938 8735     International: 44 171 938 8735
FAX:       0171 938 8937     International: 44 171 938 8937
EMAIL:     M.Honey at nhm.ac.uk
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