Tussock Moth

Description:

The Plumose antennae immediately identify this moth as a male. That is the easy part. Identifying the species is slightly more difficult. My first possible ID was Lymantria dispar (Linnaeus, 1758), but that was wrong because it is distributed in Eurpoe, United States and Canada. Then I thought that I had it right when I saw the ssp. Lymantria dispar asiatica Vnukovskij, 1926, but it is not present in Philippines. There are some pictures in https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/569534-...... which look exactly like my moth and they are named Lymantria lunata (which is present in Philippines). The problem is that there are several moths (all different) which are all labelled L. lunata. A quick check with Wikipedia showed that L. lunata looks nothing like my moth. So, I must settle for Lymantria sp. until better information comes to light.

Habitat:

This moth was spotted in our front yard on a Xmas Cactus (Schlumbergera gaertneri). Plant identification - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schlumberg...