Urania fulgens

Urania swallowtail moth
Urania fulgens - MHNT
Urania fulgens △ - MHNT
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Uraniidae
Subfamily: Uraniinae
Genus: Urania
Species: U. fulgens
Binomial name
Urania fulgens
(Walker, 1854)
Synonyms
  • Cydimon cacica Guenee, 1857

Urania fulgens, the urania swallowtail moth, is a day-flying moth of the Uraniidae family. It is found from Veracruz, Mexico, through Central America to northwestern South America (west of the Andes and south to Ecuador).[1][2] It is highly migratory and has been recorded as a vagrant to Texas, USA.[2]

It is sometimes confused with the similar U. leilus, but that species is found east of the Andes in South America, is slightly larger, and has more white to the "tail".[1] The two have been treated as conspecific.[1]

As appears to be the case for all Urania, the larvae of U. fulgens feed exclusively on the toxic Omphalea species.[3]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Smith, N.G. (1972). Migrations of the day-flying moth Urania in Central and South America. Caribbean Journal of Science 12: 45-58
  2. 1 2 Quinn, M. (2011). Urania Natural History. Texas Lep Information. Accessed 12 October 2011.
  3. Lees, D.C. and N.G. Smith (1991). Foodplant Associations of the Uraniinae (Uraniidae) and their Systematic, Evolutionary, and Ecological Significance. Journal of the Lepidopterists' Society 45(4): 296-347.

Bibliography

http://www.texasento.net/Urania.html#Lees

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