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Home » Guide » Arthropods (Arthropoda) » Hexapods (Hexapoda) » Insects (Insecta) » Butterflies and Moths (Lepidoptera) » Owlet Moths and kin (Noctuoidea) » Erebidae » Tiger and Lichen Moths (Arctiinae) » Tiger Moths (Arctiini) » Euchromiina » Horama » Texas Wasp Moth - Hodges#8287 (Horama panthalon)

Species Horama panthalon - Texas Wasp Moth - Hodges#8287

Classification · Hodges Number · Synonyms and other taxonomic changes · Numbers · Size · Identification · Range · Habitat · Season · Food · Life Cycle · Remarks · See Also · Print References · Internet References · Works Cited

Wasp moth meets its end - Horama panthalon

Moth paper wasp mimic - Horama panthalon

Show images of: caterpillars · adults · both

Classification

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)

Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)

Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)

Class Insecta (Insects)

Order Lepidoptera (Butterflies and Moths)

Superfamily Noctuoidea (Owlet Moths and kin)

Family Erebidae

Subfamily Arctiinae (Tiger and Lichen Moths)

Tribe Arctiini (Tiger Moths)

Subtribe Euchromiina

Genus Horama

Species panthalon (Texas Wasp Moth - Hodges#8287)

Hodges Number

8287

Synonyms and other taxonomic changes

Horama panthalon (Fabricius, 1793)

Zygaena panthalon Fabricius 1793

North American subspecies is Horama panthalon texana.

Phylogenetic sequence # 930465

Numbers

Lafontaine & Schmidt (2010) listed two species of the genus Horama in America north of Mexico. (1)

Size

The wingspan is 32-34 mm.

Identification

Abdomen purplish/brown/black with many orange rings, hind legs black and orange with a large feathering on the tibiae (males (2)*), antennae black with orange tips, thorax and head black with orange and white markings, wings brown.

Some examples lack the orange abdominal bands (3)

Thought to be a Batesian mimic of paper wasps, Polistes species (4).

*Sexual dimorphism in tibial scales not mentioned by Dietz and Duckworth (5), and they say males and females are similar.

Range

c. TX to S. Amer., strays from AZ to FL - Map (MPG)

Habitat

Usually found on flowers, esp. Eupatorium (3)

Season

Moth Photographers Group - large map with some distribution data. (6)

Food

Adults nectar.

Life Cycle

Caterpillar and larval food unrecorded (almost). "Adult has been collected at Wislizenia refracta var. mamillata (Capparidaceae)" (5). That plant is called " jackass-clover or spectacle fruit". One record of caterpillar on Desert Yaupon, Schaefferia cuneifolia, (Celastraceae)--see iNaturalist.

Remarks

Common to abundant in southmost Texas (3).

Verification needed that only males have tufts of hair-like scales on tibiae--all images to date seem to have this feature, and some of these have more plumose antennae than others, indicating both sexes are being seen--Patrick Coin 4 February 2021.

See Also

Horama plumipes (Drury)

Print References

Covell, p. 77 plate 11-17 (7)

Eaton and Kaufman, pp. 262-263 (8)

Powell, J.A. & P.A. Opler, 2009. Moths of Western North America. p. 274, pl. 49.8.(9)

Internet References

Moth Photographers Group (6)

Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLD) (10)

North American Butterfly Association - South Texas

Butterflies and Moths of North America (BAMONA) (4)

Works Cited

1.	Annotated check list of the Noctuoidea (Insecta, Lepidoptera) of North America north of Mexico. Donald J. Lafontaine, B. Christian Schmidt. 2010. ZooKeys 40: 1–239 .

2.	Peterson Field Guides: Eastern Moths Charles V. Covell. 1984. Houghton Mifflin Company.

3.	Illustrated Checklist of the Lepidoptera of the Lower Rio Grande Valley, Texas, Vol. 2B: Macro-Moths Ed Knudson & Charles Bordelon. 2004. Texas Lepidoptera Survey, Houston. xiv + 59 pp. 20 plates.

4.	Butterflies of North America

5.	A review of the genus Horama (Hübner) and reestablishment of the genus Poliopastea (Hampson) (Lepidoptera: Ctenuchidae) Robert E. Dietz IV, W. Donald Duckworth. 1976. Smithsonian Contributions to Zoology, 215: 1-25.

6.	North American Moth Photographers Group

7.	Field Guide to Moths of Eastern North America Charles V. Covell, Jr. 2005.

8.	Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America Eric Eaton, Kenn Kaufman. 2006. Houghton Mifflin.

9.	Moths of Western North America Powell and Opler. 2009. UC Press.

10.	BOLD: The Barcode of Life Data Systems

Contributed by tom murray on 9 December, 2005 - 8:48pm
Additional contributions by cotinis, anitagould, Mike Quinn, Maury Heiman
Last updated 18 March, 2021 - 6:59pm

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