Crocomela erectistria Warren
Description. Larva slender; head uniformly shiny black; body ground color black, paler in intersegment regions, T2, A2-A7 bearing thick, bright yellow transverse stripes anterior to intersegmental areas, A2 and A7 also bearing similar transverse stripes posterior to intersegmental areas; body with sparse, short to midlength, fairly stiff, black setae, anterior and posterior segments also bearing a few very long, soft, slightly plumose setae, some with white tips, verrucae shining metallic blue-black; thoracic legs black; prolegs shiny blue-black, pads dark gray.
Common name for caterpillar morphospecies:
“Grape Discoball”
Natural History. The larvae of this species feed in groups.
Caterpillars were collected in Napo Province, Ecuador (Yanayacu Biological Station and Center for Creative Studies: Yanayacu road).
Type Locality of Crocomela erectistria Warren is Baños, Ecuador.
Caterpillars of this species have been reared at Yanayacu Biological Station (Napo, Ecuador). The primary host plants is an unknown species of Boraginaceae. One caterpillar each was also reared on Nectandra sp (Lauraceae) and Passiflora sp (Passifloraceae).
Reared YBS vouchers #: 2881, B840-847
4 reared adult specimens are deposited @ AMNH
Identification of reared adults: The following were dissected by S. Rab Green:
Reared ♂ # B841 located @ AMNH, genitalia slide SRG #133
Location: Ecuador, Napo, Yanayacu Biological Station (YY), S 00º35.9’ W77 º53.4, 2200m.
Status: Compared with collections @BMNH and USNM, collections @ AMNH. No previous dissections by authors or subsequent taxonomists.
Original description: Warren, W. 1904. New American Thyrididae, Uraniidae, and Geometridae. Novitates Zoologicae 11: 17.
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.