Scopula helcita

Scopula helcita is a moth of the family Geometridae first described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1763 Centuria Insectorum. It is found in Cameroon, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Africa and Uganda.[2]

Scopula helcita
Illustration by Dru Drury
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Family: Geometridae
Genus: Scopula
Species:
S. helcita
Binomial name
Scopula helcita
Synonyms
  • Papilio (Danaus) helcita Linnaeus, 1763
  • Aletis helcita
  • Aletis druryi Butler, 1878
  • Phalaena fascelis Linnaeus, 1764
  • Papilio fuscofasciatus Goeze, 1779
  • Phalaena helcitaria Turton, 1802
  • Phalaena macularia Fabricius, 1781
  • Aletis rubricaput Swinhoe, 1904
  • Aletis contractimargo Prout, 1916
  • Aletis dissoluta Gaede, 1917

The larvae feed on Oxyanthus unilocularis and Blighia unijugata.

Description

Upperside: Antennae black and setaceous (bristly). Head, thorax, and abdomen black, the two last having a row of white spots running along the middle, and another on each side down to the anus. Wings fine dark red. Almost half the anterior next to the tips being black, with five oval white spots thereon; three of which being the largest are joined together, the other two, being small and behind, are at a little distance apart. Posterior wings with a broad black border running from the upper to the abdominal corners, whereon are placed eight oval white spots at equal distances, two, being the outermost, very small and close together.

Underside: Palpi yellow. Tongue spiral. Legs, breast, and sides black, spotted and streaked with white. Abdomen yellow. Wings coloured and marked as on the upperside. Margins of the wings entire. Wing span nearly ​3 1⁄2 inches (87 mm).[3]

Subspecies
  • Scopula helcita helcita (Ghana)
  • Scopula helcita contractimargo (Prout, 1916) (Uganda)
  • Scopula helcita dissoluta (Gaede, 1917) (Cameroon)

References
  1. Sihvonen, Pasi (April 1, 2005). "Phylogeny and classification of the Scopulini moths (Lepidoptera: Geometridae, Sterrhinae)". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. 143 (4): 473–530. doi:10.1111/j.1096-3642.2005.00153.x.
  2. De Prins, J.; De Prins, W. (2017). "Aletis helcita (Linnaeus, 1763)". Afromoths. Retrieved November 18, 2017.
  3. Drury, Dru (1837). Westwood, John (ed.). Illustrations of Exotic Entomology. 3. p. 41. pl. XXIX.
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