Calyptra (genus)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Calyptra

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Subphylum:	Hexapoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Lepidoptera
Superfamily:	Noctuoidea
Family:	Noctuidae
Subfamily:	Calpinae
Tribe:	Calpini
Genus:	Calyptra Ochsenheimer, 1816

Species

see text

The genus Calyptra is a group of moths in subfamily Calpinae of the family Noctuidae. They are a member of the Calpini tribe. whose precise circumscription is uncertain but includes a number of other fruit-piercing or eye-frequenting genera currently classified in the subfamily Calpinae [1].

The common name of many of these species, "vampire moth," refers to the habit that they have of drinking blood from vertebrates. According to a recent study some of them (Calyptra thalictri) are even capable of drinking human blood through skin [2]

Some species of this genus have been classified with genus name Calpe and they include more than one blood-sucker.

[edit] Some species of Calyptra

Calyptra albivirgata (Hampson, 1926).
Calyptra bicolor (Moore, 1883).
Calyptra canadensis (Bethune, 1865), Canadian Owlet Moth.
Calyptra eustrigata, Vampire moth in Southeast Asia.
Calyptra fasciata (Moore, 1882).
Calyptra fletcheri (Berio, 1956).
Calyptra hokkaida (Wileman, 1922), in Japan.
Calyptra labilis, Vampire moth, in Thailand.
Calyptra lata (Butler, 1881), a large light tan colored moth of east Asia [3].
Calyptra minuticornis (Guenée, 1852), Vampire moth in Thailand and Malaysia.
Calyptra nyei (Bänziger, 1979).
Calyptra ophideroides (Guenée, 1852).
Calyptra orthographa (Butler, 1886), Vampire moth in northern Thailand and northern Laos.
Calyptra pseudobicolor Bänziger, 1979.
Calyptra thalictri (Borkhausen, 1790) in Hungary, Armenia, Kyrghyzstan. This species have been spotted as far north as central Finland