Specious tiger
A long caterpillar with numerous black legs with irregular alternating horizontal bands of black and bright light yellow color; all with varying widths and irregular edges. The head is orange.
Caterpillar of A. speciosa walking on gravel
A moth with a small head, the back of the head and shoulder-area are yellowish-orange with white lines bordering the area and black dots scattered along those white lines and a single black dot at the centre of the back, Two antennae are present. The wings are light brown with whitish 'veins'. When opened for flight, the entire body can he seen in the same theme as the upper body in yellowish-orange with white lines and numerous black dots.
Moth of A. speciosa laying on a leaf
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Lepidoptera
Superfamily: Noctuoidea
Family: Erebidae
Genus: Asota
Species:
A. speciosa
Binomial name
Asota speciosa
(Drury, 1773)
Synonyms
  • Phalaena speciosa Drury, 1773
  • Aganais speciosa (Drury, 1773)
  • Hypsa subretracta Walker, 1856
  • Hypsa undulifera Walker, 1856
  • Aganais aphidas Hopffer, 1858
  • Pseudhypsa baumanniana Karsch, 1895
  • Aganais unicolor Rothschild, 1896
  • Aganais conspicua Swinhoe, 1903

Asota speciosa, the specious tiger, formerly Aganais speciosa, is a moth of the subfamily Aganainae, now regarded as being within the family Erebidae. Formerly it was regarded variously as a member of the Arctiidae, the Hypsidae, and subsequently the family Aganaidae, which was formerly regarded as a family by some authorities.[1][2] The species is widespread in sub-Saharan Africa, such as in Sierra Leone, Togo, Nigeria, Cameroon, Mozambique and South Africa.

The larvae feed on certain latex-rich plants, mainly Ficus species (fig trees), both indigenous and domestic, but also on poisonous Acokanthera species.[3] They sabotage the latex defences of their host plants by biting partway through the midrib, severing the latex vessels before proceeding to feed on the portion of the leaf blade distal to the sabotage, which is no longer supplied with latex.[4]

References

  1. ↑ Zahiri, Reza; et al. (2011). "Molecular phylogenetics of Erebidae (Lepidoptera, Noctuoidea)". Systematic Entomology. 37: 102–124. doi:10.1111/j.1365-3113.2011.00607.x. S2CID 84249695.
  2. ↑ Lafontaine, Donald; Schmidt, Christian (19 Mar 2010). "Annotated check list of the Noctuoidea (Insecta, Lepidoptera) of North America north of Mexico". ZooKeys (40): 26. doi:10.3897/zookeys.40.414.
  3. ↑ Alan Weaving; Mike Picker; Griffiths, Charles Llewellyn (2003). Field Guide to Insects of South Africa. New Holland Publishers, Ltd. ISBN 1-86872-713-0.
  4. ↑ COMPTON, S.G. 1987. Aganais speciosa and Danaus chrysippus (Lepidoptera) sabotage the latex defences of their host plants. Ecological Entomology 12: 115-118


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