Mazuca strigicincta

{{Short description|Species of moth}}

{{Speciesbox

| image = Mazuca strigicincta - Cameroon - Africa (8460858869).jpg

| image_caption =

| taxon = Mazuca strigicincta

| authority = Walker, 1866

| synonyms =

  • Hypsa concinnula Mabille, 1878
  • Apsarasa liturata Butler, 1881
  • Mila hebraica Aurivillius, 1891

}}

Mazuca strigicincta, the Pikachu moth, is a moth in the family Noctuidae found from Nigeria and Ghana down to northern Namibia and Mozambique.{{Cite web|title=Search|url=https://www.gbif.org/occurrence/map?taxon_key=1767201|website=Global Biodiversity Information Facility |access-date=2020-05-19}}

Taxonomy

= Name =

This taxon was named by Francis Walker in 1866.{{Cite web|title=Mazuca strigicincta Walker, 1866|url=http://www.catalogueoflife.org/col/details/species/id/a77eedc1e0fb286c6c84408f09d068c0|website=Catalogue of Life |access-date=2020-05-19}}{{cite web |last=Savela |first=Markku |date=June 10, 2019 |url=https://www.nic.funet.fi/pub/sci/bio/life/insecta/lepidoptera/ditrysia/noctuoidea/noctuidae/hadeninae/mazuca/#strigicincta |title=Mazuca strigicincta Walker, 1866 |website=Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms |accessdate=May 20, 2020}}{{LepIndex |id=266934 |accessdate=May 20, 2020}}

== Common name ==

The common name, Pikachu moth, comes from the fact that the moth shares colors with the popular Pokémon character Pikachu.

Appearances in media

M. strigicincta appears on a commemorative Ghanaian postage stamp in 2002 along with other stamps featuring other species of moths. The stamp features the Pikachu moth with a purple background, with "Ghana" written in the top right and the characters "C4500" in the bottom left in red Comic Sans.{{Cite web|title=Stamp: Pikachu Moth (Mazuca strigicincta) (Ghana 2002) |url=https://touchstamps.com/Stamp/Details/926386/pikachu-moth-mazuca-strigicincta |website=TouchStamps |access-date=2020-05-19}}

References