Larval morphology and behavior:
Young larvae typically have a white background color and feed at the tips of leaves, hiding on a frass chain attached to the vein. Their color changes to yellow upon reaching their third instar. Older larvae cut the major veins of the host plant leading into the leaf tissue and will hide in this "tent" when not feeding.
Foodplant Associations:
Phytolaccaceae: Phytolacca rvinoides
Convolvulaceae: Ipomea sp.
Malvaceae: Hampea appendiculata
Bombacaceae: Ochroma lagopus, Ochroma pyramidale
Tiliaceae: Heliocarpus appendiculatus, Luhea seemannii
Predator Associations:
Formicidae: Paraponera clavata
Taxonomic name:
This information is based an ongoing project dedicated to the inventory and dissemination of information on lepidopteran larvae, their host plants, and their parasitoids in a Costa Rican tropical wet forest and an Ecuadorian montane cloud forest.
N=46 rearings as of 2012, 22 eclosed and 24 died.