Syntomid Moth id.

[Martin Honey]

At 09:48 PM 02/10/2001 -0600, you wrote:
>Can anyone provide a name for the small metalic green and black Syntomid
>moth that makes it up here into the wilds of Canada from time to time as
>pupae on bananas?  Genus would be good, species wonderful.  The origin of
>this one was Ecuador (????)
>
>Thanks

Dear Gary (and anyone else interested)

We get three different species of 'banana moth' imported into the UK. The
'usual' one at the moment being Antichloris eriphia (Fabricius, 1777) but
many early determinations cite A. viridis (Druce) [there are published
records of A. viridis from the Faroe Islands (1997, Entomologist's Gazette
48: 84) and Sweden (1996, Ent. Tidskr. 117: 123-4)]. There may also be a
geographic factor in determining which species one gets (mainland or
w'indies, respectively) but I can't prove that as we often never get to
find out the country of origin.

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 (see a paper by Field, 1978, Smithsonian
Contributions to Zoology 198:).

If you go to <http://www.atroposuk.co.uk> and click on the blue Atropos you
will go to  a page with a copy of a plate from the journal on which is a
picture of a 'British' specimen of A. eriphia.

Hope this helps

Martin
***********************************************************
Martin R. Honey CBiol MIBiol, Lead Curator (Moths)
Department of Entomology, The Natural History Museum,
Cromwell Road, London, SW7 5BD, Great Britain
EMAIL:     M.Honey at nhm.ac.uk
Museum web page <http://www.nhm.ac.uk>

TELEPHONE: 020 7942 5604     International: 44 20 7942 5604
FAX:       020 7942 5229     International: 44 20 7942 5229
***********************************************************


 
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