Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-94fs2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T10:40:29.223Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Preliminary observations on a skin-piercing blood-sucking moth (Calyptra eustrigata (Hmps.) (Lep., Noctuidae)) in Malaya

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 July 2009

H. Bänziger
Affiliation:
c/o Department of Entomology, Federal Institute of Technology, Zürich, Switzerland

Extract

In the course of entomological investigations in Malaya between 1965 and 1967, it was found that Calyptra eustrigata (Hmps.) (Noctuidae) frequently pierces the skin of mammals to feed on blood, and in this respect differs from those Noctuids that marely imbibe blood from an open wound. Other species of Calyptra are known as fruit-piercing moths, and C. minuticornis (Gn.) which was taken in Cambodia on one occasion at the eye of a buffalo, is also one of the eye-frequenting moths, which imbibe lachrymal secretions of Ungulata, Proboscidea and occasionally of man. C. eustrigata has been observed imbibing blood after piercing the skin of buffalo, Sambar deer, Malayan tapir and nilgai antelope. Caged adults in the laboratory were observed piercing the skin of human fingers offered to them; and imbibition of blood continued for up to and hour. The proboscis, which ends in a sclerotised and strongly barbed point, can penetrate about six millimetres below the surface. The two halves of the proboscis work like two paralled saws moving alternately. While feeding is in progress, droplets of saliva exude at the base of the probiscis and run down the outside. Often some blood is regurgitated, then reabsorbed. The puncture causes itching, which can last for up to an hour, and local hardening of the tissue, which can persist for five weeks. By reason of its mode of feeding, C. eustrigata would appear to be a potential vector of disease, as the saliva and regurgitated fluids might transmit pathogenic agents.

Type
Research Paper
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1968

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bänziger, H. (1966). First records of eye-frequenting Lepidoptera from man (preliminary communication).—WHO/EBL 66.81, 13 pp., multigraph.Google Scholar
Büttiker, W. (1959 a). Observations on feeding habits of adult Westermanniinae (Lepid., Noctuidae) in Cambodia.—Acta trop. 16 pp. 356361.Google Scholar
Büttiker, W. (1959 b). Blood-feeding habits of adult Noctuidae (Lepidoptera) in Cambodia.—Nature, Lond. 184 no. 4693 (suppl. 15) p. 1167.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Büttiker, W. (1962 a). Notes on two species of Westermanniinae (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) from Cambodia.—Proc. R. ent. Soc. Lond. (B) 31 pp. 7376.Google Scholar
Büttiker, W. (1962 b). Biological and morphological notes on the fruit-piercing and eye-frequenting moths.—Verh. XI. int. Kongr. Ent. 1960, 2 pp. 1015.Google Scholar
Büttiker, W. (1964). New observations on the eye-frequenting Lepidoptera from S.E. Asia.—Verh. naturf. Ges. Basel 75 pp. 231236, 6 pls. (1 col.).Google Scholar
Büttiker, W. (1967). Biological notes on eye-frequenting moths from N. Thailand.—Mitt. Schweiz. Ent. Ges. 39 (3–4), 151179.Google Scholar
Kalshoven, L. G. E. (1951). De plagen van de cultuurgewassen in Indonesië. Deel II.—pp. 5131065. ’s-Gravenhage, W. van Hoeve.Google Scholar
Neubecker, F. (1966). Noctuiden Imagines als Schädlinge in den Tropen und Subtropen. Zeitschrift f. angew. Entomologie, 58 pp. 8288.CrossRefGoogle Scholar