Saurita mosca Dognin
Description. Larva slender; head shiny black laterally but pale whitish around ecdysial suture, dividing black into two hemispheres; body ground color dark gray with indistinct white highlights, giving it a moldy appearance, anal plate white, dorsal verrucae on T1 with a faint pink cast; body with sparse, soft, black, mid-length, curved and slightly plumose setae, anterior and posterior segments with a few additional similar, but longer, setae, T2 with six long dorsal setae ending in dense plumose tufts, two tufts white-tipped, the rest black, A8 with a dorsal pair of white-tipped setae, A1 and A7 with dense lateral tufts of short dull orange setae, tufts so densely packed as to appear as solid projections; each tuft consisting of two densely packed paddle-shaped hair pencils, one above the other; verrucae matching ground color of surrounding cuticle; thoracic legs and prolegs matching body color.
Common name for caterpillar morphospecies: “Big-eye Four-tuft”
Natural History: The larvae of this species are solitary feeders.
Caterpillars were collected in Napo Province, Ecuador (Yanayacu Biological Station and Center for Creative Studies: at various sites).
Type Locality of Saurita mosca Dognin is Loja, Ecuador.
Caterpillars of this species have been reared at Yanayacu Biological Station (Napo, Ecuador).
The most common host plant is Chusquea scandens (Poaceae), but this species feeds on a large number of plants, including:
Sarcorhachis sydowii Trelease, Piper baezanum, Piper augustum Rudge,
and Piper cf. schuppii (Piperaceae)
Miriocarpa sp. and Boehmeria bullata (Urticaceae)
Casearia sp. (Flacourtiaceae)
Geonoma orbignyana (Arecaceae)
Diplazium costale var. robustum (Dryopteridaceae)
Erato polymnioides (Asteraceae)
Heliconia sp. (Heliconiaceae)
Palicourea thyrsiflora Ruiz & Pavon (Rubiaceae)
Nectandra cissiflora Nees (Lauraceae)
Alloplectus tetragonoides (Gesneriaceae)
Anthurium truncicolum, Anthurium sp. Caladium sp., Xanthosoma daguense (Araceae)
Alnus acuminata (Betulaceae)
Evodianthus funifer (Cyclanthaceae)
Erythrina edulis (Fabaceae) and an unknown species in the Magnoliaceae
Larvae are heavily parasitized by braconids, ichneumonids, and tachinids, all of which develop internally. Most of the parsitoids pupate away from the host, except for some ichneumonids which pupate inside the host. One tachinid species attacks the larva and emerges as a pre-pupa from the host pupa, all others are larval-larval parasitoids. Taxa that have been identified include Carcelia sp. (Tachinidae: Exoristinae), Meteorus (Braconidae: Meteorinae), and Campopleginae (Ichneumonidae).
N= 594 rearings as of 2012, 286 eclosed, 42 were parasitized and 228 diedMost adult reared specimens are deposited @ AMNH.
Identification of reared adults: The following were dissected by S. Rab Green:
Reared ♂ # 36704 located @ AMNH, genitalia slide SRG #130
Reared ♂ # 12414 located @ AMNH, genitalia slide SRG #131
Reared ♂ # 36687 located @ AMNH, genitalia slide SRG #132
Location: Ecuador, Napo, Yanayacu Biological Station (YY), S 00º35.9’ W77 º53.4, 2200m.
Status: Compared with type collection @BMNH & USNM, collections @ AMNH.
Holotype is not dissected, our specimen could only be identified by visually comparing to pinned type specimens. No previous dissections by authors or subsequent taxonomists.
Original description :
Dognin, P. 1897. Hétérocères Sud-Américains. Annales de la Société Entomologique de Belgique 41: 24.
Reference:
Rab Green, S.B., G.L. Gentry, H.F. Greeney, L.A. Dyer. 2011 Ecology, Natural History, and Larval Descriptions of Arctiinae (Lepidoptera: Noctuoidea: Erebidae) from a Cloud Forest in the Eastern Andes of Ecuador. Annals of the Entomological Society of America 104(6):1135-1148.