| Faint owl moth | |
|---|---|
| |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Lepidoptera |
| Superfamily: | Noctuoidea |
| Family: | Erebidae |
| Subfamily: | Erebinae |
| Tribe: | Hypopyrini |
| Genus: | Cometaster Hampson, 1913 |
| Species: | C. pyrula |
| Binomial name | |
| Cometaster pyrula (Hopffer, 1857) | |
| Synonyms | |
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Generic Specific
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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
- Savela, Markku (August 2, 2019). "Cometaster Hampson, 1913". Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms. Retrieved December 9, 2019.
- ^ "Cometaster pyrula (Hopffer, 1857)". African Moths. Retrieved 9 December 2019.
- Pitkin, Brian & Jenkins, Paul (November 5, 2004). "Genus details: Cometaster". Butterflies and Moths of the World. Natural History Museum, London. Retrieved 11 November 2015.
- Rangaswamy Muniappan, Gadi V. P. Reddy & Anantanarayanan Raman (eds.), Biological Control of Tropical Weeds Using Arthropods, Cambridge University Press 2009, pg. 26
External links
Media related to Cometaster at Wikimedia Commons- "The host range and biology of Cometaster pyrula; a biocontrol agent for Acacia nilotica subsp. indica in Australia"
| Taxon identifiers | |
|---|---|
| Cometaster | |
| Cometaster pyrula | |
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