''Chrysodeixis eriosoma'', the green garden looper, is a

moth Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of w ...

of the family

Noctuidae The Noctuidae, commonly known as owlet moths, cutworms or armyworms, are a family of moths. They are considered the most controversial family in the superfamily Noctuoidea because many of the clades are constantly changing, along with the other ...

. Mostly cosmopolitan in distribution, it is a pest in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of countries and dependencies by population, second-most populous ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

, the

Malay Peninsula The Malay Peninsula ( Malay: ''Semenanjung Tanah Melayu'') is a peninsula in Mainland Southeast Asia. The landmass runs approximately north–south, and at its terminus, it is the southernmost point of the Asian continental mainland. The ar ...

and

Australasia Australasia is a region that comprises Australia, New Zealand and some neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term is used in a number of different contexts, including geopolitically, physiogeographically, philologically, and ecologic ...

. It is present in

Hawaii Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...

and recorded as an incursion in mainland North America and

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

.CABI Invasive Species Compendium Datasheet: ''Chrysodeixis eriosoma'' (green looper caterpillar) (Viewed 14 Nov. 2015)
/ref> It is morphologically identical to ''

Chrysodeixis chalcites The tomato looper or golden twin-spot moth ''(Chrysodeixis chalcites)'' is a moth of the family Noctuidae, subfamily Plusiinae. It mainly lives in southern Europe, the Levant and tropical Africa, but can be seen migrating across much of Europe. ...

'' and the two may be

sibling species In biology, a species complex is a group of closely related organisms that are so similar in appearance and other features that the boundaries between them are often unclear. The taxa in the complex may be able to hybridize readily with each oth ...

Description

Adult

''Chrysodeixis eriosoma'' has a wingspan of 42 mm. Some specimens are much darker than others. ''Chrysodeixis eriosoma'' differs from '' C. signata'' in the head, thorax, and forewing having a reddish tinge; abdomen with the lateral and anal tufts often black in the male. Forewing with much more gilding on the basal, medial, and outer areas; the antemedial line more oblique, the postmedial more oblique and sinuous; the Y mark large, prominent, and golden, the arms often filled in with golden and occasionally joined to the tail. ''Chrysodeixis eriosoma'' and ''

'' moths cannot be separated morphologically, and they may be

. However, they may be distinguished based on DNA sequencing, pheromones, or geographic origin as ''C. chalcites'' is found in the

Palearctic The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Sib ...

and ''C. eriosoma'' in the tropical and subtropical regions of eastern Asia and the Pacific islands as well as in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands. With an area of , Australia is the largest country by ...

and

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...

. The species is abundant in agricultural areas and open habitats in lowlands and foothills but has been found at altitudes up to 2600m The literature referring to ''C. chalcites'' in southern and eastern Asia or

Oceania Oceania (, , ) is a geographical region that includes Australasia, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Spanning the Eastern and Western hemispheres, Oceania is estimated to have a land area of and a population of around 44.5 million ...

may actually refer to ''C. eriosoma''.

Larva

The larvae are green with a number of faint longitudinal dorsal and lateral white lines. They also sometimes have black dots on their sides. As for most other plusiine, they lack two pair of

proleg A proleg is a small, fleshy, stub structure found on the ventral surface of the abdomen of most larval forms of insects of the order Lepidoptera, though they can also be found on other larval insects such as sawflies and a few other types of in ...

s and thus move in a looper fashion, which is somewhat similar to caterpillars in the family

Geometridae The geometer moths are moths belonging to the family Geometridae of the insect order Lepidoptera, the moths and butterflies. Their scientific name derives from the Ancient Greek ''geo'' γεω (derivative form of or "the earth"), and ''metro ...

. They grow to a length of about 4 cm. They are

polyphagous Feeding is the process by which organisms, typically animals, obtain food. Terminology often uses either the suffixes -vore, -vory, or -vorous from Latin ''vorare'', meaning "to devour", or -phage, -phagy, or -phagous from Greek φαγε ...

and have been reported to feed on over sixty species of plants.

Life cycle

Duration of the pupal stage varies from a few days in summer to about a month in winter. Adults live from ten to twelve days.

Pest status

''C.eriosoma'' is a pest of crops in the Solanaceae, Leguminosae, Cruciferae, and Malvaceae.

References

Plusiinae Moths of Asia Moths of Japan Owlet moths of Africa Moths of New Zealand Moths described in 1843 {{Plusiinae-stub