''Macrocilix maia'' 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 ...
in the family
Drepanidae
The Drepanidae are a family of moths with about 660 species described worldwide. They are generally divided in three subfamilies) which share the same type of hearing organ. Thyatirinae, previously often placed in their own family, bear a super ...
first described by
John Henry Leech
John Henry Leech (5 December 1862 – 29 December 1900) was an English entomologist who specialised in Lepidoptera and Coleoptera.
His collections from China, Japan, and Kashmir are in the Natural History Museum, London. These also contain inse ...
in 1888. It is found in
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
,
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 north ...
,
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
,
Korea
Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...
,
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
,
Peninsular Malaysia
Peninsular Malaysia ( ms, Semenanjung Malaysia; Jawi: سمننجڠ مليسيا), or the States of Malaya ( ms, Negeri-negeri Tanah Melayu; Jawi: نڬري-نڬري تانه ملايو), also known as West Malaysia or the Malaysian Peninsula, ...
,
Sumatra
Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...
and
Borneo
Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and eas ...
.
Adults have been recorded in May.
The larvae feed on the leaves of ''
Quercus variabilis
''Quercus variabilis'', the Chinese cork oak, is a species of oak in the section ''Quercus'' sect. ''Cerris'', native to a wide area of eastern Asia in southern, central, and eastern China, Taiwan, Japan, and Korea.
Description
''Quercus variab ...
''. They have a creamy body, marked with dark brown in a longitudinally reticulate manner. Some segments have a rufous suffusion.
The moth features two symmetrical patterns resembling flies feeding on bird droppings. The moth has a pungent odor.
[Wild, Ale]
"A mural on moth wings"
''Myrmecos''. Retrieved August 16, 2013.
References
Moths described in 1888
Drepaninae
Moths of Japan
{{Drepaninae-stub