Last week I received an email from my father who sent me a photograph of a moth that he spotted in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, where he lives. The moth was seen during the day. It was a day flying syntomid moth (Syntomoides imaon).
The syntomid moth is mostly black with transparent wing spots. It has orange bands on the abdomen and its antennae and feet have white bands. It can easily be mistaken for a wasp, which it mimics in appearance. Along with its wasp-like appearance, it is day flying too. Predators often think it is a wasp, and allow the moth to get away unscathed. The syntomid moth has other tricks up its sleeve. It is believed to be bitter tasting and hence predators like birds and lizards who have attempted to eat it once will stay well away from the ‘yucky’ moth the next time around.
This moth belongs to a family called tiger moths, many of which use the ‘bitter tasting’ strategy to reduce chances of being devoured by predators.
The syntomid moth is sometimes called the handmaiden moth. It is common throughout India and often turns up inside homes. Despite being a day flying moth, it is attracted to light, and can be seen near light bulbs in our houses at night. Often you can see mating syntomid moths on bushes in the garden. Among the mating moths, you can easily make out which one is the female by looking at the abdomen. The ‘fatso’ moth or the one with the large-bodied abdomen is the female – she needs to be able to carry eggs in her body for laying on the larval food plants of the moth.
I recently came across a person who was petrified of moths. I could not believe what I was hearing. How could someone be scared of gentle pretty creatures like moths? I recall taking a moth gently onto my hand and showing it to the person, who ran away from me in fright! It was then I found out that the person was not alone in his fear of moths. So much so there is even a name coined for the fear of moths — mottephobia! This is derived from ‘motte’ which means moths in German and ‘phobia’ which means fear in Greek.
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