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Species
Notodontidae
IUCN
NCBI
EOL Text
Comments: Other than that this moth turns up in wooded areas it is quite unclear what the habitat is. It could be any of several pineland or forest types or it could even be cypress swamps. Ths foodplant is unknown as well--although obviously some southeastern tree or shrub. Thus no habitat check-offs are selected.
Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLDS) Stats
Public Records: 1
Specimens with Barcodes: 1
Species With Barcodes: 1
United States
Rounded National Status Rank: N3 - Vulnerable
Non-Migrant: No. All populations of this species make significant seasonal migrations.
Locally Migrant: No. No populations of this species make local extended movements (generally less than 200 km) at particular times of the year (e.g., to breeding or wintering grounds, to hibernation sites).
Locally Migrant: No. No populations of this species make annual migrations of over 200 km.
The following is a representative barcode sequence, the centroid of all available sequences for this species.
No available public DNA sequences.
Download FASTA File
Rounded Global Status Rank: G3 - Vulnerable
Adult behavior:
diurnal, nocturnal
Adult behavior:
Although Notodontidae are an important component of some moth communities, especially in lowland tropical forests, almost nothing is known about their adult behavior. Females are usually heavy-bodied and do not seem to stray far from their host plant. Perhaps because notodontids are rarely plant pests, their pheromones have not been isolated and their mating behavior has gone essentially unstudied. Males of most species possess highly developed coremata on their genitalia, termed the Barth Organ (Barth, 1955; Weller, 1992). While these are undoubtedly important during courtship, their use has never been documented in nature. Females of some species, particularly in the Thaumetopoeinae and Dioptinae, posses a corethrogyne, comprising a mass of deciduous scales on abdominal segment 7 that are pasted to the surface of the eggs as these are being laid. The corethrogyne is thought to protect the eggs from predators and parasites. Many adult notodontids possess prominent tufts on their head, thorax, wings, or abdomen (see Schintlmeister, 2008). These make the moths incredibly cryptic, causing it to bear remarkable resemblance to a stick or small twig when at rest.
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Rights holder/Author | Leptree.net, Jennifer Zaspel, LepTree |
Source | http://www.leptree.net/lep_taxon_page?id=15592&scientificName=Notodontidae |
Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLDS) Stats
Public Records: 2
Specimens with Barcodes: 2
Species With Barcodes: 1
Notodontidae is a family of moths with approximately 3,800 known species.[1] Moths of this family are found in all parts of the world, but they are most concentrated in tropical areas, especially in the New World (Miller, 1992). The Thaumetopoeidae (processionary moths) are sometimes included here as a subfamily.
Species of this family tend to be heavy-bodied and long-winged, the wings held folded across the back of the body at rest. They rarely display any bright colours, usually being mainly grey or brown, with the exception of the Dioptinae subfamily (Grimaldi and Engel, 2005). These features mean they rather resemble Noctuidae although the families are not closely related. The adults do not feed. Many species have a tuft of hair on the trailing edge of the forewing which protrudes upwards at rest. This gives them the common name of prominents. The common names of some other species reflect their hairiness, such as Puss Moth and the group commonly known as kittens (Furcula spp.), so named as they resemble small versions of the Puss Moth.
Contents
Life cycle[edit]
Egg[edit]
The egg is hemisperical or almost spherical, and lacks any ribs (Scoble, 1995).
Larvae[edit]
The caterpillars are usually hairless, but may have tubercules, spines, or humps (Scoble 1995), and often rest with both ends raised. The last set of prolegs is frequently vestigial, or may be long, with glands that can be everted. Some larvae undergo shape modification and colour changes with each instar (Weller, 1992). Notodontid larvae are notable for their often bizarre shapes, and some have chemical defenses (cyanic acid, formic acid, and other ketones: Blum, 1981) not commonly found in other Lepidoptera (Weller 1992). Schizura unicornis and S. badia have a mixture of formic acid, acetic acid and other compounds which they spray accurately at their attacker (Attygalle et al., 1993).
The larvae of some species are truly extraordinary: That of the Puss Moth has a fearsome-looking "face" and two long whip-like "tails" (actually highly modified prolegs) and it rears both ends in a threatening display when disturbed. The larva of the Lobster Moth is even more remarkable, resembling a crustacean. Others, such as Cerura vinula mimic the edge of a leaf that has been damaged and is turning brown (they rest and feed along the edge of the leaf).
Most are solitary feeders, but some are gregarious, and this is most common in the processionary moths, Thaumetopoeinae.
They feed on trees and shrubs, except in the subfamily Dioptinae, which feed on herbaceous plants (Miller, 1992). The larvae typically feed on only one family of trees, but closely related species will feed on distantly related plants; for example different members of the genus Datana feed on Juglandaceae, Hamamelidaceae, Ericaceae and Anacardiaceae (Miller 1992).
Adults[edit]
Adults have tympanal organs on the metathorax that opens towards the top, and the tibial spurs have serrated edges (Scoble, 1995). Mouthparts vary from well-developed to absent. The Dioptinae, which was formerly considered a separate family, are colourful and fly by day, while the rest of the notodontids are nocturnal. Some of these Dioptinae have non-functional tympanal hearing organs which are normally defensive against bats (Fullard et al., 1997).
Importance[edit]
Some notodontids cause noticeable defoliation of their hosts. Well-known defoliators include: the saddled prominent Heterocampa guttivita, poplar defoliator Clostera cupreata, California oakworm Phryganidia californica, the beech caterpillar, Quadricalcarifera punctatella, variable oakleaf caterpillar Lochmaeus manteo, Epicerura pergisea, yellownecked caterpillars Datana ministra, and walnut caterpillar Datana integerrima, among others.
Systematics[edit]
Notable species are:
- Buff-tip (Phalera bucephala)
- Puss Moth (Cerura vinula)
- Lobster Moth (Stauropus fagi)
- Poplar Kitten (Furcula bifida)
- Coxcomb Prominent (Ptilodon capucina)
- Rough Prominent (Nadata gibbosa)
Apart from the subfamilies listed above, there are numerous notodontid genera of uncertain relationships. These are:
References[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Notodontidae. |
- Attygalle, AB, S. Smedley, J. Meinwald and T. Eisner. 1993. Defensive secretion of 2 notodontid caterpillars. J. Chem Ecol 19(10):2089-2104.
- Blum, M.S. 1981. Chemical Defenses of Arthropods. Academic Press, New York.
- Chinery, Michael. 1991. Collins Guide to the Insects of Britain and Western Europe 1986 (Reprinted 1991)
- Fullard, James, Jeff W. Dawson, L. Daniel Otero, Annemarie Surlykke. 1997. Bat-deafness in day-flying moths (Lepidoptera, Notodontidae, Dioptinae). Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology 181(5): 477-483
- Grimaldi, D, and MS Engel, 2005. Evolution of the Insects. Cambridge University Press.
- Miller, James. 1992. Host-plant association among prominent moths. BioScience 42 (1): 50-56.
- Scoble, MJ. 1995. The Lepidoptera: Form, Function and Diversity. Second ed. Oxford University Press.
- Skinner, Bernard. 1984. Colour Identification Guide to Moths of the British Isles
- Weller, SJ. 1992. Survey of Adult Morphology in Nystaleinae and Related Neotropical Subfamilies (Noctuoidea: Notodontidae). Journal of Research on the Lepidoptera 31(3-4):233-277.
- ^ van Nieukerken et al. (2011). "Order Lepidoptera Linnaeus, 1758. In: Zhang, Z.-Q. (Ed.) Animal biodiversity: An outline of higher-level classification and survey of taxonomic richness". Zootaxa 3148: 212–221.
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Source | http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Notodontidae&oldid=634579178 |
Description of egg life history:
Can be laid in masses. In Thaumetopoeinae, the female covers the egg mass with scales from a specialized tuft on A7-A8, this is also the case in some Dioptinae (Tithraustes, Isostyla, Stenoplastis).
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | Leptree.net, Jennifer Zaspel, LepTree |
Source | http://www.leptree.net/lep_taxon_page?id=15592&scientificName=Notodontidae |