Chrysodeixis eriosoma

Adult

Dorsal view

Ventral view

Chrysodeixis eriosoma has a wingspan of 42 mm.^[1] The adult moth is dark grey-brown, with bunched hairs on its thorax that look like a short pair of horns. Males have long orange hair-like scales on either side of the abdomen, which are distinctive for this species, and these are probably the origin of the scientific name, as in Greek, erith = red, and soma = body. On each forewing of males and females is a silvery figure of eight with the two halves separated, unlike the related species C. subsidens in which they are fused together. The absence of a tiny silver 's' on the fore wings distinguishes it from another related species, C. argentifera. The chemical identities of the sex attractants (Pheromones) for this moth have been elucidated.^[3] Some specimens are much darker than others.^[1]

Chrysodeixis eriosoma differs from C. signata in the head, thorax, and fore wing having a reddish tinge; abdomen with the lateral and anal tufts often black in the male. Fore wing with much more gilding on the basal, medial, and outer areas; the antemedial line more oblique, the postmedial more oblique and sinuous; the Y mark large, prominent, and golden, the arms often filled in with golden and occasionally joined to the tail.^[1]

Chrysodeixis eriosoma and Chrysodeixis chalcites moths cannot be separated morphologically, and they may be sibling species. However, they may be distinguished based on DNA sequencing, pheromones, or geographic origin as C. chalcites is found in the Palearctic and C. eriosoma in the tropical and subtropical regions of eastern Asia and the Pacific islands as well as in Australia and New Zealand. The literature referring to C. chalcites in southern and eastern Asia or Oceania may actually refer to C. eriosoma.^[4]

Larva

The larvae are green with a number of faint longitudinal dorsal and lateral white lines. They also sometimes have black dots on their sides. As for most other plusiine, they lack two pair of prolegs and thus move in a looper fashion, which is somewhat similar to caterpillars in the family Geometridae. They grow to a length of about 4 cm.^[3] They are polyphagous and have been reported to feed on over sixty species of plants.^[1][5]