Amata huebneri – Hübners Wasp Moth

Amata huebneri, photo by Bramadi Arya | used under CC-BY-SA

Amata hubneri is a day flying moth in the superfamily Actiinae of tiger
moths and woolly bears. It is the smallest species in its genus. It can be found all over Singapore and most of Southeast Asia and yet little is known about its ecology and life cycle. In addition it is a member of a phylogenically uncertain and continually changing branch of the tree of life which obscures what information there actually is. The page aims to collect and present a large chunk of the information that exists on the species

Life history

Not much is known about the ecology of different life stages of Amata huebneri.

Larva

Photos, illustrations or even descriptions of the larvae, caterpillars, of the moth is very hard to find, they are however documented to feed on a rice, Oryza sativa¹

. Common features of all caterpillars in Arctiinae is secondary setae that make the caterpillar fluffy ² , hence the common name woolly bears. One article lists Amata huebneri as a minor species attacking Mikania micrantha, a mile a minute weed, in peninsular Malaysia ³ . 

Adult

There is no formal documentation on adult feeding habits ⁴  but videos and photos show them feeding on, and therefore pollinating a variety of flowers. The species can be found in various places around Singapore, this video is showing Hübners wasp moth feeding with its probiscus on a coatbutton flower, Tridax procumbens.

Mimicry

As its common name suggests Amata huebneri is a wasp mimic. Other genera are made unpalatable or poisonous due to their diet ⁴ , however, no species of Amata are known to be so. Therefore Hübners wasp moth is likely a batesian mimic despite its diet being largely unknown, predation is reduces even though the moth itself is eadible since predators learn to avoid eating thing with this color and pattern.

Mating

Amata huebneri copulates, as most other moths, facing opposite directions with posterior ends of abdomen meeting ⁵ as in the video below. Wings are held horizontally which is common among Amata species ⁵ . In most cases the females head will be pointing upward (to the sky) during copulation, one source indicates that this might not be the case in Amata huebneri but results are not conclusive ⁵ .

Concervation and Ecological importance

The conservation status of Amata Huebneri has not been assessed be IUCN ⁶ . Likely the species is currently of least concern but it is concerning that we know so little of its life cycle. It is notable that the caterpillars have been found to feed on rice since this might be of economical importance would the species to become a pest under particular circumstances. Hübners wasp moth caterpillars must, however, have some other host plant in Singapore since they are reproducing here as well. What this plant or plants might be is unknown as far as I know.

On the other hand there might be unknown interactions the pollinating adults and flowering plants or with predators. Disruption of these trophic web interactions might have dire consequences of hardly any at all, we just don't know. This is not a one off thing, many common insect species, especially in the tropics, are poorly studied. Many, more cryptic and night active genera, are even worse of than Amata.

Is It really Amata huebneri?

Many other species of Amata look similar to A. huebneri. Most are distributed through other parts of Asia or are African species. Investigating the distribution of a species can be of great help in avoiding misidentifications.

Distrubution of Amata huebneri

A. huebneri is present in most of south-east Asia, including Singapore, as well as in northern parts of Australia ⁷ .

Amata dilitata

The only other Singapore native species that might cause misidentification is Amata dilitata. This species has similar wings and pattern but is brown rather than black, with yellow windows and only one large window on the hind wing ⁸ .

Amata trigonophora

It might also be confused with Amata trigonophora since the pattern of body and wings are fairly similar. Amata trigonophora is not native to south east Asia but the species might overlap in north-eastern Austrailia. A. trigonophora can however easily be distinguished by larger size, it has a wingspan of about 30 mm ⁹ , and by the yellow coloration of its wing windows.

Left: Amata huebneri, photo by Gael Lafond | Right: Amata trigonophora, photo by Donald Hobern | used under CC-BY-SA

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Species description

Morphology

Amata huebneri is small moth with a wingspan of 22-24 mm ¹¹ , black with orange markings. Important morphological features are summarized in the table and in the picture to the right.

Feature	Description
Antennae	Moderate length (shorter than fore wing), black with white apical segments. Serrated in males, simple in females12 .
Abdomen	Black with six, thin, orange stripes in males, five in females13 . Cylindrical with rounded, posterior end with tuft of black hairs.
Thorax	Black, notum (over side of thorax) with orange markings as well as streaks of blue hairs (usually not visible to naked eye)
Wings	Black with translucent windows on fore and hind wings as picture (below).

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Systematics

The systematics of the tiger moths and wooly bears, Arciinae, is far from set in stone. Change has been extensive the last 20 years and relationships between Arciinae and other taxa within the superfamily Noctuidea are still uncertain ²¹ .

Taxonomy

The current, taxonomic placement of Amata huebneri is as follows ^{4 7 8} :
Superfamily: Noctuoidea
Family: Erebidae
Subfamily: Arctiinae
Tribe: Syntomini
Genus: Amata
Species: Amata huebneri

The table below summarizes some of the historical changes to the taxonomy of Arciinae. Knowledge of such changes is necessary for analysis of available literature. The book tiger moths and woolly bears from 20008 ²¹ and the website moths of Borneo⁴ , for example, places Syntomini in Syntominae instead of Actinae. In addition, genus Amata has previously been placed under subfamily Ctenuchinae²² .