A New US Record for a tropical fruit-piercing moth

by Vernon Antoine Brou Jr.,
74320 Jack Loyd Road,
Abita Springs, Louisiana 70420 USA
email: vabrou@bellsouth.net

A single specimen of the large noctuid moth Eudocima serpentifera (Walker) was captured in an ultra-violet light trap at sec.24T6SR12E, 4.2 mi NE of Abita Springs, Louisiana, on October 25, 2006. This female appears to be the first reported record for this tropical species in the United States.

The type locality of serpentifera is the Dominican Republic and Brazil. E. serpentifera is significantly larger (wing length: 52 mm) than the other known occasional tropical migrant Eudocima apta (Walker, [1858]) (wing length: 45 mm). The details for Louisiana and some other US records of Eudocima, including a brief discussion involving nomenclatural changes for some species of the worldwide genus Eudocima Billberg can be viewed in the original report “A New US Record for the tropical fruit-piercing moth Eudocima serpentifera (Walker, [1858]) in Southern Lepidopterists’ News Vol. 28. Investigation like this involving new US lepidoptera, and other lepidoptera related articles of the Gulf States are available through the publications of the Southern Lepidopterists’ Society.

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