- Cryptoses choloepi
-
Cryptoses choloepi Scientific classification Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Arthropoda Class: Insecta Order: Lepidoptera Family: Pyralidae Genus: Cryptoses Species: C. choloepi Binomial name Cryptoses choloepi
Dyar, 1908Cryptoses choloepi is a sloth moth in the snout moth family that lives exclusively in the fur of sloths, mammals found in South and Central America.[1]
Adult female moths live in the fur of of the Brown three-toed sloth Bradypus variegatus infuscatus and leave the fur of the sloth to lay eggs in the sloth droppings when the sloth descends, once a week, to the forest floor to defecate. The larvae of Cryptoses choloepi live in the dung and newly emerged moths later fly from the dung pile into the forest canopy to find a host sloth.[2]
See also
- Bradipodicola hahneli
- Sloth moth
- Arthropods associated with sloths
Reference
- ^ Rau, P (1941). "Observations on certain lepidopterous and hymenopterous parasites of Polistes wasps". Annals of the Entomological Society of America 34: 355–366(12). http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/esa/aesa/1941/00000034/00000002/art00010. Retrieved 14 February 2011.
- ^ Waage, Jeffrey K.; Montgomery, G. Gene (1976). "Cryptoses choloepi: A Coprophagous Moth That Lives on a Sloth". Science 193 (4248): 157–158. Bibcode 1976Sci...193..157W. doi:10.1126/science.193.4248.157. PMID 17759254.
This Pyralidae-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
