#Thalictri

[ssevora]

And of course: My toon Thalictri and their jackal

[moths-daily]

Vampire moth, please!! They drink blood from vertebrates.

Moth Of The Day #136

Vampire Moth

Calyptra thalictri

From the erebidae family. They have a wingspan of 40-45 mm. They tend to inhabit herb-rich and mosaic-like areas with steppe-like grasslands, rock fragments and sparse forests. They can be found in China, Korea, Japan, Malaysia and Southern Europe. This the most common species of the calyptra genus, which are all referred to as vampire moths, due to their ability to drink the blood of vertebraes, including humans.

[sandpaperoctopi]

Leo 🦋

[sitting-on-me-bum]

Vampire moth - Calyptra thalictri.

Image credit: Ilia Ustyantsev

[tiredspirals]

A green dryad warrior while I have a green dryad adventurer .........

[calyptramoths]

step 1 of making an online name: make it memorable and easy to pronounce at a glance

[he would not listen to this advice]

[necrohomodril]

Manduca diffissa х Calyptra thalictri

Many people are afraid of insects. Often for their appearance. Sometimes their small size does not cause calm, but only a shiver throughout the whole body from the mere thought that a small creature is climbing up the back to the very back of the head, clumsily clinging to the skin with small legs.

Personally, I don't find insects scary because they have a bunch of limbs or compound eyes that have no soul or intentions, not even because some can bite.

Something else frightens and fascinates me at the same time.

Insects are much more complex than other creatures on Earth. Starting from the segmented structure of the body to the process of metamorphosis. All these patterns on the wings, the structure of the legs, antennae, seem so unnaturally symmetrical and detailed. If you delve deeper under the layer of chitinous shell, you can get confused in the structure of all these bizarre organs and nodes. It’s as if all this has its own meticulous creator, fixated on diversity, whose goals are incomprehensible, but the results are so engineeringly beautiful that they are frightening.

[icedghostlatte-art]

Ok, if Danny is a luna moth. Is Vlad a cecropia moth?

In the AU specifically, he's a spider! A trap door spider to be exact, but if he was to be a moth? He'd be a Calyptra thalictri, aka Vampire Moth.

But in Luna Moth Danny's au specifically, he's a spider!!

[sixteenseveredhands]

The Vampire Moth: these moths use a specialized proboscis to pierce the skin on pieces of fruit and feed on the juices inside, but some have also been observed using the same tactic to feed on human blood

Members of the genus Calyptra are often collectively referred to as "Vampire Moths." All members of this genus are obligate fruit-piercers, meaning that they all subsist primarily on fruit, and they must use their proboscis to pierce through the skin -- but 10 species of Calyptra (out of 18 species in total) have also been documented using the same technique to feed on the blood of living vertebrates, and some are even known to feed on humans.

Blood-feeding (i.e. hematophagy) seems to occur only among the adult males. In various cases, vampire moths have been known to feed on the blood of pigs, antelope, water buffalo, deer, tapir, cattle, elephants, and humans (among other things). Before it can feed, the moth must press its proboscis against the surface of the skin and then oscillate its head back and forth until it is able to pierce through the skin.

Then, according to an article in Entomology Today:

As blood from the host animal wells up, it opens hooks on the sides of the proboscis to anchor it firmly. The proboscis has two parts that alternate between anchoring and drilling through host tissue using an “antiparalell” movement. A bite from a Calyptra moth is red and sore, but is believed to pose no danger to human beings. A vampire moth can suck blood for up to 50 minutes.

Calyptra is a widely distributed genus, with species appearing on most continents, but blood-feeding only seems to occur within the Calyptra populations in South/Southeast Asia and North/Eastern Russia. Some species have been known to feed on blood within certain parts of their geographical range, while feeding only on fruit throughout the rest of their habitat. It's widely speculated that differences in elevation, precipitation, and/or other macroclimate conditions may have an effect on those behaviors.

The biological purpose of blood-feeding among vampire moths is not known, but many scientists theorize that it may allow the males to supplement their salt intake in order to produce healthier offspring.

Calyptra moths are also excellent leaf mimics; their wings are patterned/textured much like dry leaves, enabling them to remain camouflaged when their wings are folded.

Sources/More Info

Purdue University: Investigations of the Vampire Moth Genus Calyptra (PDF)

Entomological Society of America: Geographic Distribution and Differential Feeding Behaviors of the Fruit-Piercing and Skin-Piercing Moth, Calyptra thalictri

Science Direct: Wound-Feeding and Skin-Piercing Moths

Entomology Today: Vampire Moths Suck the Blood of Vertebrates, Including Humans

The Daily Garden: Vampire Moths

Images: [1] C. orthograpta [2] C. minuticornis [3] C. minuticornis [4] C. thalictri [5] C. minuticornis

[bowelfly]

Do you know whether tiger moths can feed as adults? I was looking them up and I noticed the websites I visited would just leave out any information on adult diet (or lack thereof)

there are some moths that do not feed as adults, notably saturniids (giant silk moths & etc), but otherwise all adult moths will generally feed on nectar or sometimes fruit juice. since they're not physically developing anymore as adults and generally just staying alive long enough to mate, they mostly just need sugar water as a fuel source.

also since the topic of moth feeding has been brought up, someone's bound to mention this so yes there are a very few moth species that fed on more unusual substances, such as animal tears and blood:

Hemiceratoides hieroglyphica and Calyptra thalictri, both in the Erebidae family (img source, sci-hub mirror)

[mikoo00]

Pozwólcie, że zaprezentuje wam ćmę wampira Inspirowana istniejącym gatunkiem ciem, które lubią sobie skupnąć ludzkiej krwi - calyptra thalictri

Wyszło nooo średnio denerwują mnie te plamy tuszu ale to najlepsza odbitka, którą udało mi się zrobić

[scientificbughunt]

Spotted this beautiful Calyptra thalictri feeding, what are you doing silly, you are long past your time this year.

[oopsalltes]

ended up changing my sona since i wasnt happy with lleuad being that, i think they work better as a separate character

dusk bomber is designed after the real life Calyptra thalictri, also known as the "vampire moth" that is capable of drinking blood from vertebrates. he is a Pseudo Bomber who required visceral sustenance in order to function. since bombermen don't have fluids, he is more of a menace towards organics that populate Planet Bomber like humans or animals. kind of like a weird ass cryptid people tell stories about

acolyte, on the other hand, is merely a parasitic machine that lives off of other machines, usually bombermen. since dusk is Pseudo, he's capable of molting/shedding his skin to brush off injuries, which is what acolyte inhabits - mostly because being under dusk's protection as a servant/messanger type is perhaps the safest way for them to continue existing. (top left image is him possessing green for funsies!)

[vampieri]

is Ripple a vampire? I know they’re like a humanoid moth creature but I’ve also seen some stuff that kinda implies they’re a vampire, just curious

honestly no clue, i jabbed on them being a vampire a few times but idk if i really wanna put that exact label on them.

they’re just a weird creature with a few vampiric traits tossed in.

though i’m liking the idea of having them connect to a vampiric moth that actually exists (calyptra thalictri specifically)

idk rn they’re just a weird fucking thing

[tiredspirals]

I’d say I did a pretty good job bringing my sylvari over into FR

[bjfinn]

📷🎧💎🙃

What's set as my phone's lock screen?

Luckily I have two tablets -- and two lock screen photos! On my big tablet I have a photo of me and my da, taken in April 2019, three days after his 93rd birthday and about a year before he died.

Headphones or earbuds?

Earbuds for the win! I'm almost deaf in my right ear (it's genetic), so headphones aren't much use -- with earbuds, I can just use the left one. Also, headphones make my ears hot and sweaty lol

What's my most prized possession?

My mother's wedding ring.

What's a weird fact that I know?

There's a species of moth (Calyptra thalictri), found from East Asia through Siberia and into southern Europe, that is known as the vampire moth because the males feed on the blood of vertebrates (including humans). It's believed that they do this for the salt, which they offer to females to try to get them to mate.

They can feed for up to an hour on a single host.

Thanks for the asks!