Macara alydda Druce

General comments: 

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=198 rearings as of 2012, 7 eclosed, 13 were parasitized and 178 died.

3rd instar to pupa: 98 days; days as pupa: 120 days (N = 112).

Larval morphology and behavior: 

Early instar Macara alydda feed in large groups.

Distribution: 

Collected in Napo Province, Ecuador (Yanayacu Biological Station and Center for Creative Studies).

Foodplant Associations: 

Melastomataceae: Miconia capitellata, Miconia dielsii, Monochaetum lineatum, Monochaetum sp., Tibouchina lepidota

Annonaceae: Nectandra sp.

Gunneraceae: Gunnera brephogea, Gunnera sp.

Ericaceae: Disterigma acuminatum, Psammisia sp.

Euphorbiaceae: Croton sp., Alchornea pearcei, Alchornea grandis, Alchornea sp., Acalypha scandens, Acalypha macrstachya, Acalypha platyphylla

Fabaceae: Erythrina edulis

Cunoniaceae: Weinmania balbisiana

Clusiaceae: Clusia multiflora

Cucurbitaceae: Cayaponia macrocalix

Poaceae: Chusquea scandens

Solonaceae: Solanum sycophanta

Rosaceae: Rubus sp. "mora"

Parasitoid Associations: 

Braconidae: Meteorus sp. (N=3).

Tachinidae: Uramya sp. (N=3), Unknown spp. (N=3).

Unknown: failed to emerge (N=4).

Scratchpads developed and conceived by (alphabetical): Ed Baker, Katherine Bouton Alice Heaton Dimitris Koureas, Laurence Livermore, Dave Roberts, Simon Rycroft, Ben Scott, Vince Smith