Polydesma umbricola Boisduval, 1833

Mbata, Keith J. & Prins, Jurate De, 2023, Annotated checklist of moths of Zambia (Insecta: Lepidoptera), Zootaxa 5354 (1), pp. 1-503 : 351

Polydesma umbricola Boisduval, 1833

COMMON NAME (S): Monkeypod Moth, Large tabby or Fruit-piercing Moth. SYNONYM(S): Coenipeta collutrix Geyer, 1837b ; Polydesma landula Guenée, 1852b . IUCN STATUS: Not Evaluated (NE). DISTRIBUTION: Aldabra, Andamans, Angola, Assumption Island, Australia, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cabo Verde, Coëtivy Island, Comoros, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Fiji, French Polynesia,

Gambia, Hawaii, India, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Myanmar,

Namibia , New Caledonia, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Philippines, Republic of Congo, Réunion, Saudi Arabia, Senegal,

Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Vanuatu,

Vietnam, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

LOCALITY IN ZAMBIA: ‘Lusaka’, in Lusaka Province. LARVAL HOSTPLANT(S): Two Fabaceae species namely, Albizia lebbeck and Pithecollobium dulce are host plants of the taxon in the Réunion ( Boisduval 1833; Etienne & Viette 1973). The African Moths (2019) webpage names the following Leguminous plants (Family Fabaceae or Leguminosae ) as larval foodplants of this tason;

Albizia lebbeck (L.) Benth., Samanea saman (Jacq.) Merr. , Acacia sp. and Pithecollobium dulce (Roxb.)

Benth.

The tachnid fly, Eucarcelia evolans (Wiedeman) (Tachinidae) and the Eulophidae wasp, Trichospilus diatraeae (Cherian & Margabandhu) are prasitoids of the taxon in the Réunion ( Etienne & Viette 1973).

SOURCES: African Moths 2019; Boisduval 1833; De Prins & De Prins 2022; Etienne & Viette 1973; Hampson 1910c.

Genus Prionofrontia Hampson, 1902