Ghesquierellana hirtusalis ( Walker, 1859c )

Mbata, Keith J. & Prins, Jurate De, 2023, Annotated checklist of moths of Zambia (Insecta: Lepidoptera), Zootaxa 5354 (1), pp. 1-503 : 103

Ghesquierellana hirtusalis ( Walker, 1859c)

COMMON NAME(S): Blotched Pearl.

SYNONYM(S): Phostria pallas Meyrick, 1936 ; Polygrammodes borbonica Viette, 1976 .

IUCN STATUS: Not Evaluated (NE).

DISTRIBUTION: Cameroon, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Gambia, Kenya, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Réunion, Sao Tome & Principe, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

LOCALITY IN ZAMBIA: Lusaka and Chirundu, in Lusaka Province; Ndola, in Copperbelt Province.

LARVAL HOSTPLANT(S): Host plants of the taxon include: two Moraceae species ( Ficus vallis-choudae Delile and F. mucuso Welw. ex Ficalho in the Democratic Republic of Congo; one Moraceae species ( Ficus mauritiana Lam. ) in the Réunion and three Moraceae species ( Ficus carica L., F. trichopoda Baker and F. sur ), as wel as one Malvaceae species ( Gossypium sp. ) in an unnamed African country or countries. The African Moths (2019) webpage lists six Moraceae species (i.e. Ficus mauritiana Lam. , F. sur Forssk., F. mucoso Welw. ex Ficalho , F. vallis-choudae Delile , F. trichopoda Baker and F. carica L.) and one Malvaceae species ( Gossypium sp. ) as larval foodplants for the taxon.

SOURCES: African Moths 2019; Catalogue of life 2017; De Prins & De Prins 2022; Ghesquière, 1942; Pinhey 1975; Poltavsky et al. 2018b; Viette, 1976.