2016 Dominican Republic Moths

The weather here during the first part of our stay consisted of sporadic Thunderstorms, with heavy rain and strong gusts of wind, which blew the rain under the roof overhang well into our balcony. To protect the trap overnight, it was necessary to raise it past the danger line by putting the balcony furniture together tied into a column to secure the trap as in the right of the picture. The left shows it in operation, with the black UV lamps creating a faint blue glow, and a small piece of white cloth placed at the back of the trap fluoresced a gentle pale blue, to enable us to see moths as they came in. The lamps actually produce a darker blue light than shown, as the camera interprets the colour more brightly than the naked eye.

Noctuidae. Wingspan: 96mm. A large species, which was seen first inside the main hotel building at a light on the 29th May and released outside, but also came into our trap on the 31st May as well. Visually, they are almost black, but flash exposures reveal often quite complex patterns in this group.

Erebidae, Erebinae - Wingspan: 62mm A slightly smaller moth than the DR001, but still quite large. A single individual came to the trap on the 29th May.

Noctuidae, Condicinae - Wingspan: 30mm. A smaller Noctuid, fairly non-descript in colouring and appears to be quite variable in colouring. Four came to the trap on the 29th May, plus one each on the 31st and the 2nd June.

Notodontinae, Nystaleinae - Wingspan: 44mm. A single individual came to the light trap on the 29th May.

Erebidae, Eulepidontinae - Wingspan: 36mm. A single individual came to the trap on the 29th May.

Erebidae (Arctiidae), Arctiinae - Wingspan: 42mm. One of the "Wasp Moths", it was a common species in this area. Good numbers came to the trap on; 29th May (1), 31st May (5), 2nd June (3), 6th June (8) - all the trapping nights. Overnight on the 31st May, a pair mated and the female finally laid a number of eggs in the collecting box. Fortunately, the eggs didn't hatch until we were on the way home, and local leaves from our garden were tried to find a UK foodplants. After losing a couple of the early hatchlings which tried leaves but did not eat them successfully, I finally found that the remaining hatchlings would eat Elm (Ulmus sps) and more reluctantly, Sallow (Salix sps). I now have pictures of the instars which I'll include here once they are downloaded.

Ready for take off the following morning. They were like a queue of aircraft standing by for clearance to go!

Whilst waiting in my collecting box to be logged, a pair of this moth mated and subsequently the female, kept for a number of days, laid a small number of 1mm diameter Ova on the inside of the lid, before she was finally released. These we're kept through the rest of our stay, and within a week, one of the Ova started to hatch.

The first hatchling wriggling its way out of the 1mm diameter egg. The others were beginning to show signs of getting ready to also hatch, so it was touch and go whether we would get home before the rest. It was a real problem, as we had no idea what the foodplant would be, and searches on the internet weren't clear. One site suggested Wild Ackee, so we got a print and began searching the tracks around the hotel. As we had a number of these moths in for each night we trapped, it had to be nearby, but we had no success, even asking the hotel gardeners if they knew of it. Resorting in desperation to picking small leaves of various shrubs, to see if any were acceptable, but no success. A few larvae died as we tried and tried all sorts of leaves. So in the end, the rest of the eggs were packed to bring them home with us on the following day. After an uneventful trip back, I was quickly able to select likely leaves from our surrounding countryside. After losing another few which hatched as we arrived home, I finally got success with Elm (Ulmus) and to a lesser extent Sallow (Salix), as small deposits of frass started appearing.

As the rest of the larvae hatched, they immediately went to work on the Elm leaves a little later on, developing front and back segments a bright orange. The central segments were black with a light dorsal stripe between the orange bits, and overall covered in hairs. This larva shown was around 3-4mm.

After about a month, the remaining 9 larvae had reached last Instar, keeping the general colours, but also developing a circlet of four black tufts of thick hairs at the edge of the orange segments each end. Generally, the body is covered with typical short black hairs like many Arctiinae members, so when hunched in rest, the orange is hidden. The larvae are not very active, generally hiding inside curled leaves when not feeding.

Some created small very distinct Cocoons (about 25mm long axis), choosing the back of a leaf, as above, or even just a flat surface.

The Cocoons are quite thin, so through the side of their cage, I could watch the larvae spinning them, and see the orange pupa, as shown here, inside. As a tropical species, I'm expecting emergence quite quickly, so hopefully the adults will be out and about in two weeks time.

Erebidae (Arctiidae), Arctiinae - Wingspan: 32mm. Another of the "Wasp Moths", one individual was found attracted to a light on the stairs to our room on the evening of the 29th May, followed by another to the trap on the 2nd June.

Thyrididae, Striglininae - Wingspan: Mm. A single individual of this small species was recorded at the trap on the 29th May. A world widespread pest species on crops, probably introduced from Africa on the foodplants.

Nolidae, Cloephorininae - Wingspan: 26mm. Tail High! This strange little moth readily raises its tail to look like a twig shoot as it rests on twig stems. Against light-coloured, older twigs, it could easily disappear from view with this rest position. Four came to the trap here, one each on; 29th May, 31st May, 2nd June, and 6th June.

Noctuidae - Wingspan: 28mm. A single individual came into the trap on the 29th May. The wings have an iridescent golden effect at certain angles.