Herpetogramma phaeopteralis ( Guenée, 1854 )

Mbata, Keith J. & Prins, Jurate De, 2023, Annotated checklist of moths of Zambia (Insecta: Lepidoptera), Zootaxa 5354 (1), pp. 1-503 : 105

Herpetogramma phaeopteralis ( Guenée, 1854)

COMMON NAME (S): Tropical sod webworm, Dusky Herpetogramma Moth, Dusky Herpetogramma . SYNONYM(S): Acharana descripta Warren, 1892 ; Botys additalis Walker, 1862c ; Botys cellatalis Walker, 1866a ; Botys communalis Snellen, 1875 ; Botys inhonestalis Walker, 1866a ; Botys neloalis Walker, 1859c ; Botys otreusalis Walker, 1859c ; Botys plebejalis Lederer, 1863 ; Botys triarialis Walker, 1859c ; Botys tridentalis Snellen, 1872 ; Botys vecordalis Guenée,

1854; Botys vestalis Walker, 1859c .

IUCN STATUS: Not Evaluated (NE).

DISTRIBUTION: Angola, Bermuda, Costa Rica, Cuba, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ecuador (Galápagos (Galápagos Islands )), Fiji, Gambia, Hispaniola, India, Jamaica, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mexico, Myanmar, Oman, Puerto Rico,

Réunion, Russia, Saint Helena , Seychelles, Sierra Leone, South Africa, South Korea, South Sudan, Sri Lanka,

Sudan, Uganda, USA (Florida, Louisiana, Texas, South Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Oklahoma), Vietnam ,

Yemen, Zambia.

LOCALITY IN ZAMBIA: Lusaka , in Lusaka Province; Monze, Kalomo and Livingstone, in Southern Province ; Mbala, in Northern Province .

LARVAL HOSTPLANT(S): In the Réunion, the Urticaceae species, Boehmeria macrophylla Hornem. , is the host plant of the taxon. No specific host plant for the taxon is known in Zambia though the African Moths (2019) webpage lists the following as larval foodplants for the taxon in general: one Lamiaceae species ( Anisomeles

sp.), one Urticaceae species ( Boehmeria macrophylla Hornem ), two Amaranthaceae species ( Celosia argentea L. and Gomphrena globose L.), three grass or Poaceae species ( Cynodon sp. , Eremochloa sp.

and Stenotaphrum secundatum (Walter) Kuntze [St. Augustine grass]) and one Polygonaceae species

( Muehlenbeckia platycladum (F.Muell.) L.H.Bailey [The centipede plant]), some of which are found in

Zambia.

SOURCES: African Mothss 2019; De Prins & De Prins 2022; Hampson 1910c.