Dysschema nr dissimulata Walker
Description. Larva slender; head uniformly shiny black; body ground color dark, velvety purple, dark purple at intersegmental areas, body bearing dull white, broken dorsal, subdorsal, and spiracular lines on T2 to A8, T1 and A8with more extensive dull yellowish white patterning, especially laterally, on T1 forming a distinct patch behind head, A10 also with dorsal pale markings, T3 and A4 with light orange stripes extending to spiracular area, spiracles dull orange; body with sparse, short to mid-length, fairly stiff, black setae, each segment also bearing a few longer, soft white setae, white setae longest and most concentrated on dorsum of A8, dorsal setae on A3ÐA6 orange near bases, most verrucae shiny metallic blue-black, exceptions being those verrucae on T3, A4, and A8 and those below spiracles on A3-A6, these exceptions bright orange; thoracic legs black; prolegs shiny blue-black, pads dark gray.
Common name for caterpillar morphospecies:
“Disco Ball”
“Rubus Pyralid”
“Commoner Eois”
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 Dysschema nr. dissimulata Walker is Bogota, Colombia .
Caterpillars of this species have been reared at Yanayacu Biological Station (Napo, Ecuador). The most common host plants are in the Asteraceae: Critoniopsis occidentalis, Barnadesia parviflora, Clibadium glabrescens Blake, Mikania sp., Munnozia hastifolia, Adenostemma harlingii King & Robinson, and Erato polymnioides.
Other hosts include:
Chusquea scandens (Poaceae)
Rubus sp (Rosaceae)
Passiflora sp., (Passifloraceae)
Piper lanceifolium (Piperaceae)
Diplazium costale var robustum (Dryopteridaceae)
Niphidium sp., (Pteridophyta)
and unknown plant species in the Solanaceae.
Larvae are parasitized by tachinid flies which develop internally and pupate away from the larva.
Reared YBS vouchers #: 1050, 1250, 2805, 2835, 11294, 13788, 14523, 15298, 25832, 26693, 28033, 35432, 35753, 36090, 36212, 39964, 39975, 40232, 40233, 40234, 40235, 41899, 41991, 42664, 43111, 43194, 43287, 43852, 46686, 47192, 48121, 49258, 51536, 51691, 51692, 51693, 51694, 51695, 51696, 51697, 51698, 51699, 51700, 51701, 51702, 51703, 51704, 51736, 51921, 52732, 52959, 53365, 55611, 56244, 56246, 56247, 56282, 64499.
Specimens in “bold” are deposited either @ AMNH(n=14) or @UNR(n=5)
Identification of reared adults:
Status: Compared with type collection @BMNH, collections @ AMNH, USNM.
Dissections. This species has not been dissected yet. No previous dissections by authors or subsequent taxonomists
Original description: Walker F. 1865. List of the Specimens of Lepidopterous Insects in the Collection of the British Museum 31: 155. London.
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