A synopsis of the Castniidae (Lepidoptera) of Trinidad and Tobago
Author
González, Jorge M.
Author
Cock, Matthew J. W.
text
Zootaxa
2004
762
1
19
journal article
10.5281/zenodo.158237
19cf13dc-ccff-48cd-bd4f-c5d3f2593c96
11755326
158237
92392970-95FD-4341-AE4B-C1C61D8C0B1F
Eupalamides cyparissias cyparissias
(
Fabricius 1776
)
(Fig. 1)
This is a well known pest of oil palm (
Elaeis guianeensis
), coconut (
Cocos nucifera
), and other palms (
Arecaceae
) in the nearby countries of
Guyana
and
Surinam
(
Miller 1986
,
1987
). It can be easily distinguished from
E. guyanensis
(Houlbert)
(common in nearby
Venezuela
) by the presence of long, threadlike scales that cover half of the under side of the forewing (
González 1999
). Although
Cock (1985)
states that this species [cited as
Lapaeumides dedalus
(Cramer)
] is restricted to mainland South
America
, we found one specimen from
Trinidad
.
Urich (1909, 1915) cites a record by Mr. Ottier who found caterpillars of
Telchin licus
(reported as
Castnia licus
) attacking young coconut palms. It is possible that Ottier confused this species with
E. cyparissias
since their larvae are quite similar (
Miller 1987
) (see discussion under
T. licus
below). We believe that the specimen studied could have been a vagrant from the mainland. Curiously, it is a rather small specimen.
Material Examined:
TRINIDAD
: 1Ψ,
5 Jun 1925
(CUIC).