The oleander moth is a cute and strange creature that looks exactly like Iron Man, like a human-faced animal. Today Xiaobian will tell you about this strange creature.
The oleander moth is an insect of the genus Oleander in the family Lycaenidae. Ovoid, about 1.5 mm in diameter, the larvae are coarse, the thoracic segment has a large eye-like stripe, the middle is blue, and the edges are black.
Adults are olive green with small eye lines at the base of the forewings. The larvae are gluttonous and eat the leaves. Adult insects are extremely strong in flight, and have spread from the Mediterranean Sea to most of the earth, about 2-3 generations a year, and have phototropism at night.
The green body, the oval head, the head with a pair of large blue and white "eyes", the cute eyes are very curious.
Resembling an "alien" appearance, it is more common in southern China. Look closely, the bug has cute "eyes", I think it is very interesting, and if you look closely, the 'shape' of this caterpillar is similar to that of Iron Man. ”
In the Guangdong region, three generations occur a year, and the old mature larvae pupate in the soil overwinter. Feathering begins in late February of the following year, with larvae being seen from March to December, and peaking larvae in May-June and August-September.
Before pupating, mature larvae darken, shorten their bodies, stand still in suitable soil, and molt after 3-4 days.
Distributed in Guangdong, Guangxi, Taiwan, Fujian, Sichuan, Yunnan and other provinces. Oleander moth larvae feed mainly on oleander plants, hence the name.
The reason why it is more common is because oleander plants are generally poisonous, and the larvae of the oleander moth eat itself with some toxicity, and many predators are afraid of it.
The oleander moth is one of the most beautiful moths with a body pattern, with green markings on the body surface making them look like they are wearing camouflage suits.
The oleander caterpillars have eye-like spots that look a lot like eyes, but this is actually just a way for them to scare predators to retreat.
It is mainly harmful to oleander, periwinkle, rosewood, soft branch yellow cicada and so on. The larvae hide in the leaves to feed on the young leaves, and due to the extremely large amount of food, they will eat the entire leaf of the plant, which will have a great impact on the growth and appearance of the plant.
Older larvae chew fast and eat large amounts, and can eat the leaves of contiguous plants in a few days. Booby traps mainly with lights. Light booby-traps are applied to the peak of adult insects. Or artificially capture the larvae and turn the soil to kill the pupae.