Eupalamides cyparissias cyparissias ( Fabricius 1776 )

González, Jorge M. & Cock, Matthew J. W., 2004, A synopsis of the Castniidae (Lepidoptera) of Trinidad and Tobago, Zootaxa 762, pp. 1-19 : 3-4

Eupalamides cyparissias cyparissias ( Fabricius 1776) (Fig. 1)

This is a well known pest of oil palm ( Elaeis guianeensis ), coconut ( Cocos nucifera ), and other palms ( Arecaceae ) in the near­by countries of Guyana and Surinam ( Miller 1986, 1987). It can be easily distinguished from E. guyanensis (Houlbert) (common in near­by Venezuela) by the presence of long, thread­like scales that cover half of the under side of the forewing ( González 1999). Although Cock (1985) states that this species [cited as Lapaeumides dedalus (Cramer) ] is restricted to mainland South America, we found one specimen from Trinidad.

Urich (1909, 1915) cites a record by Mr. Ottier who found caterpillars of Telchin licus (reported as Castnia licus ) attacking young coconut palms. It is possible that Ottier confused this species with E. cyparissias since their larvae are quite similar ( Miller 1987) (see discussion under T. licus below). We believe that the specimen studied could have been a vagrant from the mainland. Curiously, it is a rather small specimen.

Material Examined: TRINIDAD: 1Ψ, 5 Jun 1925 (CUIC).