Cometaster

Faint owl moth
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Clade: Pancrustacea
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Superfamily: Noctuoidea
Family: Erebidae
Tribe: Hypopyrini
Genus: Cometaster
Hampson, 1913
Species:
C. pyrula
Binomial name
Cometaster pyrula
(Hopffer, 1857)
Synonyms

Generic

Specific

  • Spirama pyrula Hopffer, 1858
  • Spirama lucidus Felder, 1874
  • Spirama lucida

Cometaster is a monotypic moth genus of the family Erebidae erected by George Hampson in 1913. Its only species, Cometaster pyrula, the faint owl moth or ying-yang moth, was first described by Carl Heinrich Hopffer in 1857.

Distribution

It is found in Eastern and Southern Africa, mainly in Botswana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Biological control agent

In October 2004, as part of a biological control project, larvae of this moth from South Africa were released in Queensland, Australia, in order to keep under control the type of acacia Acacia nilotica subsp. indica, a major invasive species in the Mitchell Grass Downs.

References

  1. ↑ Savela, Markku (August 2, 2019). "Cometaster Hampson, 1913". Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms. Retrieved December 9, 2019.
  2. 1 2 "Cometaster pyrula (Hopffer, 1857)". African Moths. Retrieved 9 December 2019.
  3. ↑ Pitkin, Brian & Jenkins, Paul (November 5, 2004). "Genus details: Cometaster". Butterflies and Moths of the World. Natural History Museum, London. Retrieved 11 November 2015.
  4. ↑ Rangaswamy Muniappan, Gadi V. P. Reddy & Anantanarayanan Raman (eds.), Biological Control of Tropical Weeds Using Arthropods, Cambridge University Press 2009, pg. 26