Green Cup Moth

Description:

A spectacular little moth with a hairy lime green head and thorax. About 1 cm long. The wings are brown with a lime green band across the middle. There is a thin brown line down the center of the thorax. The front pair of legs were enlarged with bushy hair. At rest, the wings are held tent-like and the front pair of legs are extended gorilla-like. It rests off the substrate up on its tarsi (last 2 pictures). This is called the "Smaller Cup Moth" of the Family Limacodidae. (https://www.tumblr.com/search/lepidopter...). There doesn't seem to be any available data on the occurrence of this species in Mexico. In the United States, it is found all along the East Coast and into Florida, as well as a small area in southern Arizona.

Habitat:

Came to an ultraviolet light, Finca Argovia, Ruta de Café, Soconusco Area of Chiapas, about 2 hours north of Tapachula.

Notes:

The larva of this species is as weird as are most of the rest of the Cup Moths, see this reference for pictures of the larva: http://mothphotographersgroup.msstate.ed... http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/speci...