Arcte coerula, moth attacking bananas, Fiji

October 2017. A moth that feeds on ripe bananas at night, but then heard the “buzzing-like feeding” sounds.

It was at first thought to be in the Erebidae, but under older literature under Noctuidae: Catocalinae. There are no specimens in the Moths of Borneo online.

Much later, a note from Matthew Cock, CABI: Jeremy Holloway tells me that this is Arcte coerula. It was placed in Catocalinae, but in Moths of Borneo 13 (only just going online) it is treated as a noctuid. This has been confirmed by DNA sequencing that placed it in the subfamily Dyopsinae. The larvae of the genus feed on nettle trees (Boehmeria, Cypholophus, Debregeasia, Girardinia and Pipturus) in the Urticaceae that (as Jeremy puts it) scare the **** out of frequenters of tropical forests where they occur!