Heliotrope Moth

Description:

Utetheisa pulchelloides Hampson, 1907 "Hindwing of male with no fold or glandular tuft on inner margin. Head and thorax yellowish. Collar and tegula each with two black spots. Each thoracic segment with one each black spot. Third joint of palpi black and abdomen whitish. Forewing white with five interrupted scarlet bands with series of black spots between them. A marginal series of black spots present. Hindwings are semi-diaphanous white, but some specimen with black on the discocellulars. A very irregular black sub-marginal band, broad at apical area and between veins 1b and 3. Larva dark grey with a dorsal white band and sub-dorsal series of red spots. Head yellow. It pupates in a loose cocoon that spun in the leaf litter on the ground below the food plant." Wikipedia.

Habitat:

I spotted these Utetheisa pulchelloides in the rice field behind our house. This field lies fallow every year after the rice crop is harvested. During this "resting period" for the soil, wild grasses and plants of many kinds sprout up and turn the rice field into a natural meadow which attracts all manner of insect life. However, the eastern part of this field always produces a rich growth of Heliotropium indicum (locally known as Trompang Elepante) and this in turn attracts thousands of U. pulcheloides.

Notes:

"The larvae feed on Argusia argentea, Echium plantagineum, Heliotropium arborescens and Myosotis arvensis." Wikipedia. This list of host plants provided by Wikipedia is undoubtedly correct, but no mention of Heliotropium indicum. Of course the author(s) make no claim that the list is complete, or that no other host plants are favoured by this species. A short visit to our rice field any day during the months of April, May and June would have Lepidopterists scurrying back to their laptops to put Heliotropium indicum at the top of their Host Plant List for U. pulchelloides.