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Stenoplastis dyeri Miller
Stenoplastis dyeri Miller
Larval morphology and behavior:Caterpillars of Stenoplastis dyeri can be recognized by the black dorsal and yellow subdorsal stripes. The head is mottled with black.
Taxonomy:Dyeri is one of only four described species in the genus Stenoplastis [see Miller, J.S. (2009), Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, No. 321]. All occur at mid-elevations in Colombia and Ecuador, with two species (flavinigra and decorata) being found on the western slope of the Andes, and two species (dyeri and satyroides) being found in the east.
Dr. Dyer has paid permament hommage to the species named after him by having an image of Stenoplastis dyeri tattooed on his ankle.
The type locality for S. dyeri is Baeza, near the Río Quijos (1890 m).
Geographic Range:The known distribution of this species comes mostly from larvae collected at the following localities: Río Malo, Sucumbíos Province, S00º09'09", W77º38'27" (1240 m); Cascada de San Rafael, Sucumbíos Province, S00º06'14", W77º35'16" (1300 m); Río Quijos, Napo Province, S00º27'52", W77º54'27" (1800 m); Las Palmas, Napo Province, S00º36.04', W77º52.59' (1928 m).
Habitat:The first known specimens of Stenoplastis dyeri were collected by J.S. Miller in 1988 as adults, flying during the day and nectaring at Baccharis flowers along the Rio Quijos, near Baeza Ecuador. Not until October 2006 was more learned about this moth, when Lee Dyer discovered larvae at San Rafael Falls (Sucumbíos Province) on Geonoma orbignyana.
Foodplant Associations:Caterpillars of S. dyeri feed on leaves of the understory palm Geonoma orbignyana (Araceae).
Stenoplastis dyeri Miller
Geographic Range:Stenoplastis dyeri is known exclusively from northeastern Ecuador in an area extending from Cascada de San Rafael (1500 m) to Baeza (2000 m).
Foodplant Associations:Caterpillars of this species feed on the leaves of an understory palm, Geonoma orbignyana (family Arecaceae).
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.