A worldwide community photographing and learning about wildlife
Project Noah Nature School
Stylura brasiliensis
This daytime moth only has a body about 1-1.5 cm long and wingspan of 2-1.5 cm. It is a beautiful deep purple color. The distinguishing characteristic is the double tail. The last picture is only to give some detail on the antenna. According to the Twitter link in the Notes below, it is the "only genus of moth that has tails permanently extended and scaled like this."
This moth was found on the blossoms of the plant that is used to poison fish. It is abundant in the villages in the Amazon rainforest of SE Ecuador and the blossoms draw a variety of insects. I have submitted the plant but it hasn't been ID'd yet https://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/57...
A couple more links that add interesting information: https://twitter.com/scibugs/status/12584... https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/489570-...
Thanks Tukup. Yes, I was able to access the PDF. I narrowed the species down using a common native here in Texas (Harrisina metallica), and found it interesting that the ones in South America use the tail plumage, unlike the ones here. Maybe because they are more rare, or it is harder for the males to locate the females.
Saturniidae, it looks like you'll have to cut and paste the link, but then it works.
Thanks for the link Saturniidae. I downloaded the document and got the full list of names. It isn't a Pampa species as they end with #11. It is a Stylura species, #12-15. I am adding the link of the download, but not sure if it will work. The Reference Box wouldn’t accept it. Thanks much for the lead.
file:///C:/Users/Owner/Downloads/Tarmannn_Drouet_FrenchGuiana_2015_07lepiDrouet69-3_Hi.pdf
Looks a lot like #13 in the picture in my link, but can't get a caption with scientific name on the link.
Spotted on Apr 11, 2018
Submitted on Feb 17, 2019
