Pompelon

Pompelon marginata

Description:

Pompelon marginata has electric blue wings covering red underpart that shows proudly only when it flies. This signals its toxicity - it is a cyanogenic moth - manufacturing and storing the respiratory toxin hydrogen cyanide.

Notes:

I spotted this in a Botanical Gardens during an afternoon walk.

1 Species ID Suggestions

Eric Noora 12 years ago

Pompelon

Pompelon marginata Hort Log: Some Kind of BLuE - Pompelon marginata

22 Comments

ceejayalyssa 10 years ago

a very pretty moth

Dr.PonMalar 11 years ago

beautiful..

Sachin Zaveri 11 years ago

Fabulous,

SeanWeekly 11 years ago

Thanks for the comments guys, I didnt even realise this moth was so unique when I saw him, At first I thought he was a butterfly :D

Ismael Chaves 11 years ago

This is a jewel, fantastic spotting

Sumukha Javagal 11 years ago

Awesome..!

MayraSpringmann 11 years ago

Wow!!!

LarryGraziano 11 years ago

Congrats sean on being highlighted in the blog. What a great moth!

KarenL 11 years ago

Congratulations Sean, this cool but deadly moth has been chosen to represent Asia in the Project Noah blog today! http://blog.projectnoah.org/

bayucca 12 years ago

Spectacular color contrasts!

LarryGraziano 12 years ago

Nice Sean!!! Beautiful creature!!!!! you can add this to the new "color blue" mission:
http://www.projectnoah.org/missions/8382...

SeanWeekly 12 years ago

Thank you for the comment SandraH

SandraH 12 years ago

great shot

SeanWeekly 12 years ago

Thanks Ian! Eric well searched and thanks again for the ID mate!

Eric Noora 12 years ago

Thanks Ian. Got lucky there I guess. Others are so hard to identify :-)

IanMichaelIleto 12 years ago

Wonderful photo Sean and great googling Eric ^_^

Eric Noora 12 years ago

Hi Sean. There was a similar spotting last month I think that looked like it minus the blue streaks in the wing - just the blue outline. That got me curious already so started googling back then but to no avail. Until last night when I saw your spotting. Got lucky I saw a similar picture as yours and followed the trail from there. They are not particularly toxic to humans I think not unless you want to eat it Lol :-)

Matthijs 12 years ago

very nice!

DiveMUster 12 years ago

Love the electric blue colours!

SeanWeekly 12 years ago

Eric Thanks so much for the ID how did you manage to ID it. Are they harmful then? Hope your well.

Eric Noora 12 years ago

Hi Sean. No Wikipedia mention of Pompelon marginata (EOL has no pic either) but if you google the name there are several sites with photos of this moth. Apparently this is a cyanogenic moth - toxic and exudes hydrogen cyanide when disturbed. Also has a striking scarlet body :-)