The previously identified female sex pheromone of cocoa pod borer, Conopomorpha cramerella, was re-evaluated for its attractive activity in different field conditions. It was found that lures containing 100-mug of synthetic sex pheromone blend, (E,Z,Z)- and (E,E,Z)-4,6,10-hexadecatrienyl acetates, and the corresponding alcohols in a ratio of 40:60:4:6 in a polyethylene vial attracted male C. cramerella moths in Sabah and peninsular Malaysia and in Sumatra and Sulawesi, Indonesia, suggesting that the same pheromone strain existed in a wide stretch of the Indo-Malayan archipelago. Of the three kinds of trap designs tested, the Delta traps were more effective than Pherocon V scale traps. Male captures were not significantly different among traps baited with 100-, 300-, or 1,000-mug doses of sex pheromone. A release rate study of pheromone formulation conducted in the laboratory showed that volatile active ingredients were desorbed from polyethylene vials following first-order kinetics, which indicates a satisfactory "half-life time" of a 100-mug loading is approximately 6 wk under laboratory conditions. A satisfactory attractiveness of the lure with a 100-mug loading was approximately 1-2 mo in the fields.
The genus Proinalactis Meyrick, 1908 is reviewed in Southeast Asia. Twenty-seven new species are described based on the specimens collected in Malaysia, Thailand, Brunei, Burma, Philippines. The new species include P. alveiformis sp. nov., P. angusta sp. nov., P. bruneiensis sp. nov., P. conicispinalis sp. nov., P. ellipsoidea sp. nov., P. exiliprocessa sp. nov., P. extumida sp. nov., P. fascisetacea sp. nov., P. flagellaris sp. nov., P. foraininulata sp. nov., P. fortijuxtalis sp. nov., P. lancea sp. nov., P. latuncata sp. nov., P. longisaccata sp. nov., P. lophacantha sp. nov., P. medispinata sp. nov., P. palmifolia sp. nov., P. pectinifera sp. nov., P.sectoralis sp. nov., P. semiovata sp. nov., P. sinualis sp. nov., P. spinosicostalis sp. nov., P. strena sp. nov., P. superimposita sp. nov., P. truncatapicalis sp. nov., P. undulata sp. nov. and P. vulvida sp. nov. Promalactis parasuzukiella Wang, 2006 and P. simniliflora Wang, 2006 are recorded from Southeast Asia for the first time. Three species described by Lvovsky are fully redescribed. Images of adults and genitalia are provided, along with a check list of 71 species from Southeast Asia.
Bats and moths have been engaged in aerial warfare for nearly 65 Myr. This arms race has produced a suite of counter-adaptations in moths, including bat-detecting ears. One set of defensive strategies involves the active production of sound; tiger moths' ultrasonic replies to bat attack have been shown to startle bats, warn the predators of bad taste and jam their biosonar. Here, we report that hawkmoths in the Choerocampina produce entirely ultrasonic sounds in response to tactile stimulation and the playback of biosonar attack sequences. Males do so by grating modified scraper scales on the outer surface of the genital valves against the inner margin of the last abdominal tergum. Preliminary data indicate that females also produce ultrasound to touch and playback of echolocation attack, but they do so with an entirely different mechanism. The anti-bat function of these sounds is unknown but might include startling, cross-family acoustic mimicry, warning of unprofitability or physical defence and/or jamming of echolocation. Hawkmoths present a novel and tractable system to study both the function and evolution of anti-bat defences.
Both community composition changes due to species redistribution and within-species size shifts may alter body-size structures under climate warming. Here we assess the relative contribution of these processes in community-level body-size changes in tropical moth assemblages that moved uphill during a period of warming. Based on resurvey data for seven assemblages of geometrid moths (>8000 individuals) on Mt. Kinabalu, Borneo, in 1965 and 2007, we show significant wing-length reduction (mean shrinkage of 1.3% per species). Range shifts explain most size restructuring, due to uphill shifts of relatively small species, especially at high elevations. Overall, mean forewing length shrank by ca. 5%, much of which is accounted for by species range boundary shifts (3.9%), followed by within-boundary distribution changes (0.5%), and within-species size shrinkage (0.6%). We conclude that the effects of range shifting predominate, but considering species physiological responses is also important for understanding community size reorganization under climate warming.
Seasonal population of the fruit-piercing moths Eudocima spp. was monitored throughout the citrus growing seasons in a citrus orchard and in site adjacent to secondary forest from July 2007 to June 2009. The moth was detected practically throughout the year with activity lowest during the wet months (September-February) when fruits are still available and while highest during the dry months (May-June) which also coincided with the main fruiting season. The effects of an nC24 horticultural mineral oil (HMO) on the citrus fruit damage caused by fruit-piecing moths was also determined. The percent fruit damage was significantly lowest (P≤0.05) in HMO-treated plots (8.4), followed by Dimethoate-treated plots (11.6) and untreated plots (22.5). However, there was no significant difference between HMO and Dimethoate treated plots indicating HMO is effective in reducing percent fruit damage.
1. Of the scarce Calyptra minuticornis, C. orthograpta and C. labilis, 51, 24, and 7 adults, respectively, were observed during some 600 night inspections at over 100 sites in 1965--1967 and 1971--1977. 2. Hitherto biologically completely unknown, and not recorded before in S.E. Asia, the latter two species flew in or near tropical monsoon forests in hilly regions (300--600 m) of N. Thailand (C. orthograpta also N. Laos). C. minuticornis was found in these and in tropical evergreen and semi-evergreen rain forests of S. Thailand and N.W. Malaysia. 3. In N. Thailand the three species were more common at the end of the cool season/start of the hot season and at the start of the rainy season. They were active mainly during the first half of the night 4. Flight and piercing behaviour, alighting, resting, enemies, and the lack of females, were similar to virtually identical with the "classical" skin-piercing blood-sucking C. eustrigata. 5. C. labilis was seen attacking elephant, C. orthograpta also water buffalo and sambar, C. minuticornis also zebu and tapir but not sambar. C. minuticornis settled on man also but did not pierce. 6. Through no piercing of hosts' skin has actually been seen in nature, indirect evidence suggests that the 3 moths are likely to be occasional blood-suckers. They pierced and sucked blood from the author's skin in experiments. 7. Reasons for lack of direct evidence may be: less developed hematophagy, less favoured hosts, lack of easy-to-pierce injured skin (which also trigger the piercing response), different climatic and phytoecological environment, fewer specimens than in the case of C. eustrigata. 8. Field observations and experiments indicate that the closely related, fruit-piercing Oraesia emarginata is not skin-piercing blood-sucking--a habit likely to be exhibited mainly in humid equatorial regions by a few Calyptra only.