Neonerita haemasticta Dognin
Description. Final instar slender; head black with uniformly sized yellow speckling, denser dorsally; body ground color velvety black above spiracular line and dirty white below, thorax with a broad mid-dorsal orange-brown stripe, irregular yellow spiracular stripe along length of body, spiracles black, T3-A9 with a thinner yellow stripe, the superior supraspiracular margin broken into irregular spots; dorsum with sparse, long, soft, slightly plumose gray setae, several longer setae posteriorly and anteriorly bear white, plumose tips, laterally and ventrally with sparse, stiff, short and mid-length, non-plumose white setae, A2-A8 each with four dorsal tufts of short, dense, strongly plumose white setae, darker near bases, A1 bearing only one pair of tufts, on either side of midline and twice as long all other tufts but similar in length to the posterior pair of tufts on A7, dorsal verrucae dull yellow with small black spots at base of setae, verrucae below spiracular line matching surrounding cuticle color; thoracic legs orange-brown; prolegs pale, dull orange with pale purple pads.
Common name for caterpillar morphospecies:
“Montura blanca con brochas grandes”
”Rayas amarillas espalda brochas blancas”
“Pepitas de girasol blanco”
“Rayas amarillas espalda brochas blancas”
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 Neonerita haemasticta Dognin is Carabaya, southeastern Peru.
Caterpillars of this species have been recorded at Yanayacu Biological Station (Napo, Ecuador) on the following host plants:
Columnea ericae Mansfeld (Gesneriaceae)
Chusquea scandens Kunth (Poaceae),
Rubus sp. (Rosaceae),
Miconia sp. and Tibouchina lepiota (Melastomataceae)
Unknown species (Moraceae)
Psammisia columbiensis (Ericaceae)
Reared YBS vouchers #: 25836, 37257, 38466, 39839, 42341, 42614, 42675, 48350, 51393, 55770, 55999, 63726. Voucher # in bold did eclose and are deposited @ AMNH.
Identification of reared adults:
The following was dissected by S. Rab Green:
One ♂collected specimen was dissected and is located @ AMNH: genitalia slide SRG #72. Location: Ecuador, Napo, Yanayacu Biological Station (YY), S 00º35.9’ W77 º53.4, 2200m.
Status: Dissection was compared with ♂ Holotype No. 34414 U.S.N.M., slide AW287.
Result: Our dissected specimen was identical to compared type.
Original description:
Dognin, P. 1906. Hétérocères nouveaux de l’Amérique du Sud. Annales de la Société Entomologique de Belgique 50: 181.
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. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1603/AN10165