Help With three Larvae I.D.'s

Wagner, David david.wagner at uconn.edu
Tue Aug 3 15:49:41 EDT 2010


Vincent,

I am the final throes of authoring a guide to owlet (noctuid) caterpillars.  I would love to include a putative image of Cydosia nobilitella in the work.  Is there anyway you could help me track down a more pixel-rich image and help obtain permission to reproduce the image in my guide?-with full credit of course.

What a splendid animal and what a great capstone for the book which is due at Princeton in October.

Cheers and thanks.

David L. Wagner
Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Storrs, CT 06269-3043
v. (860) 486-2139; f. (860) 486-6364


PS I think the arctiid might be Hyphantria cunea.  Not sure.



________________________________
From: owner-leps-l at lists.yale.edu [mailto:owner-leps-l at lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of Vincent P Lucas
Sent: Monday, August 02, 2010 6:12 PM
To: Leps-l
Subject: Help With three Larvae I.D.'s

A photographer friend of mine photographed these three larvae in Miami-Dade County, Florida. In two of them, he identifies the plant that they are on but not for the third. Can anyone offer some insight into what they might be? The only larvae that I can find that utilize Spigelia anthelmia (West Indian Pinkroot aka Wormweed) as a foodplant host is a member of the Noctuidae i.e. Cydosia nobilitella (MONA 9000) formerly Cydosia submutata. My friend did photograph an adult of this species not less than 100 yards away from where he photographed the larva on West Indian Pinkroot. . . . J.B. Heppner in _Arthropods of Florida And Neighboring Land Areas: LEPIDOPTERA OF FLORIDA, Part 1 Introduction And Catalog_ (2003), states that the hostplant is unknown for this species. . . . However, Tietz in _An Index To The Described Life Histories, Early Stages And Hosts Of The Macrolepidoptera Of The Continental United States And Canada_ (1972) lists Cydosia nobilitella (now) as the lep that utilizes West Indian Pinkroot as the larval hostplant. The photo of the yellow "dangling" caterpillar looks like a geometrid of some type to me, but I'm not sure. The last photo of the larva on cypress could possibly be an Arctiid, but again, I don't know. Have a look at these three photos and if you can shed any light on them as to the identities of these larvae, feel free to chime in with your response. Thanks.

Vincent Lucas
Naples, FL
vplucas at comcast.net<mailto:vplucas at comcast.net>

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rpilla001/4809620864/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rpilla001/3911968333/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rpilla001/2892597823/
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