Report by Swasti Sharma
Researchers from the Zoology Department at St. Thomas College, Thrissur, have discovered a new genus (a group in which animals, insects etc. are characterised according to their similar properties) and species of bagworm moth (they are known as bagworm moth because of their bag like cases the larvae form around themselves) from the coffee plantations of Kerala.
The newly found bagworm moth species has been named Capulopsyche keralensis.
Capulo means coffee and psyche means moth or butterfly. Hence in simple language the name means ‘Coffee moth of Kerala’.
It belongs to the moth family psychidae.
Psychidae consists of very small moths. Females of many psychid species never develop into an adult moth. They continue to be larvae in appearance.
This is the first genus and species of the subfamily Taleporinae found in India.
The subfamily Taleporinae is characterized by extreme sexual dimorphism (differences in size and physique between two sex that are caused by the inheritance of one or the other sexual pattern in the genetic material).
The females are pale yellowish in colour, wingless, with short legs and antennae. The larvae of this species are found on the bark of trees. They seem to feed on the bark tissues and depositions (algae) on the bark. The pupal cases (the cases in which insects pursue their metamorphosis) are attached by a thread to the branches and underside of the leaves. The life span of an emerged male adult is up to 4 to 5 days.
Image Credit: St. Thomas College