General Information

COMMON NAMES: Fruit-piercing Moth GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION: Vanuatu / New Caledonia - southern Cooks COOK ISLANDS STATUS: Introduced - Recent, Naturalised; S.Group; ?; Land KEY FEATURES: Large moth (23mm-31mmTL) blackish brown.

Cook Islands Distribution

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Southern Group: Present    Makatea:
RR	MG	AT	MK	MT	AK	PL	TK	MN
P	P

Northern Group:
TN	MH	RK	PK	NS	SW

Dysgonia prisca (Walker)
SYNONYMS: Parallelia prisca

TAXONOMY: ANIMALIA; ARTHROPODA; ATELOCERATA; HEXAPODA; INSECTA; PTERYGOTA; Lepidoptera; NOCTUIDAE

IDENTIFICATION: Large moth (23mm-31mm) blackish brown. Fore wings brown with irregular dark and light bands; distinct apical patches on leading edge bounded by thin white line; 2 cell rings often present; sometimes greyish edge. Hind wings dark greyish brown markings, indistinct. Underside dark brown variously suffused with grey scales; brown line beyond middle of wing followed distally by broken brown line often edged in orange; near wing margin orange or buff spots and dark brown lunulate terminal line. Head brown, small. Thorax brown or light brown. Abdomen grey. Legs and Antennae dark brown.

GENERAL NOTE: Caterpillar and hosts unknown, but will be arboreal (on tree foliage), rarely encountered away from indigenous forest.

Vouchers:
Rarotonga: BESO99, specimen #72, 341, 381, ID J.Dugdale 4/2000. <>PHOTO- 062GMC; Mangaia: fieldspecimen+photo, to light at Ivirua motel, 2006/5, G.McCormack with ID as Dysgonia prisca.

References:
None recorded.

Data Update History (information):
zTX, zB02, zM02, zD02

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