MOTHS OF THE GRENADINES
SPECIES LISTS BY FAMILY
Arctiidae: Ctenuchinae
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SUBFAMILY DESCRIPTION
The CTENUCHINAE ('Wasp Moths') are almost certainly an 'unnatural' group,
made up of unrelated species which have evolved to appear similar due
to similar evolutionary selection pressures - in this case to mimic various
species of wasps and other noxious insects. Future research will almost
certainly break this artifical subfamily into more natural ones
(John Rawlins pers. comm.). Many authors classify this group as
a family in its own right - the Ctenuchidae - which contains about
2,000 species. The Ctenuchines are found worldwide but the majority
of the species are found in the New World tropics. Most Ctenuchines
are between 20 and 40 mm in wingspan: their wings are characteristically
long and thin and often possess large transparent patches in mimicry of
various species of wasps and bees. Larvae are difficult to distinguish
from those of Arctiines, but feed upon grasses, lichens, mosses and
various members of the plant family Apocynaceae (Scoble 1992). This
subfamily has not been catalogued or revised, except in part, since
the major work by Hampson (1898, 1914).
GRENADINES SPECIES
I have collected or otherwise catalogued two species of this subfamily from the Grenadines so far
,
as listed below.
Please click on any underlined species name to go to a colour
illustration of the adult and brief information on
the species.
The genus Cosmosoma
Cosmosoma hypocheilus Hampson 1898
The genus Syntomeida
Syntomeida melanthus Cramer 1779
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