Somena scintillans
{{Short description|Species of moth}}
{{Speciesbox
| name = Yellow tail tussock moth
| image = Euproctis cf. scintillans (7211147680).jpg
| image_caption =
| image2 =
| taxon = Somena scintillans
| authority = (Walker, 1856)
| synonyms =
- Artaxa scintillans
- Euproctis scintillans
- Nygmia scintillans
- Prothesia scintillans
}}
Somena scintillans, the yellow tail tussock moth, is a moth in the family Erebidae described by Francis Walker in 1856.{{cite web |last=Yu |first=Dicky Sick Ki |url=http://www.taxapad.com/local.php?taxonidLC=86013495 |title=Euproctis scintillans (Walker 1856) |website=Home of Ichneumonoidea |publisher=Taxapad |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181119091854/http://www.taxapad.com/local.php?taxonidLC=86013495 |archive-date=19 November 2018 |accessdate=19 November 2018}}Wang, H.-S.; M. Wang & X.-L. Fan (2011). "Notes on the tribe Nygmiini (Lepidoptera: Erebidae: Lymantriinae) from Nanling National Nature Reserve, with description of a new species". Zootaxa. 2887: 57–68. It is found in northern India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and the Andaman Islands.{{cite web |last=Savela |first=Markku |url=http://www.nic.funet.fi/pub/sci/bio/life/insecta/lepidoptera/ditrysia/noctuoidea/lymantriidae/somena/#scintillans |title=Somena scintillans Walker, 1856 |website=Lepidoptera and Some Other Life Forms |accessdate=19 November 2018}} Though considered a minor pest, larva can sporadically be a serious pest.
Description
Head yellow. Thorax brownish. Abdomen black or yellow with orange anal tuft. Forewing vinous brown, irrorated (sprinkled) with dark scales, which colour extends as two spurs across the yellow marginal area below the apex and to center of margin, but sometimes not reaching the margin. Costa often yellowish. Hindwings yellow, or in some specimens fuscous brown with a broad yellow margin.{{cite book |last=Hampson |first=G. F. |authorlink=George Hampson |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/180068#page/5/mode/1up |title=The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma: Moths Volume I |publisher=Taylor and Francis |year=1892 |via=Biodiversity Heritage Library}}
It is a polyphagous species. Larva dark brown with a series of crimson lateral tubercles on a yellow line bearing tufts of grey hair. The third somite banded with yellow. Dorsal tufts of short brown hair on fourth, fifth and eleventh somites. Fifth to tenth somites with a broad, dorsal yellow stripe. There is a yellow spot on the anal somite.
Larva is known to damage apple plantations,{{cite web | url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259785071 | title=Somena scintillans Walker (Lepidoptera: Lymantriidae) on Apple Plantations in Jammu | accessdate=21 July 2016}} and is commonly collected on ragi, castor, pigeon pea, cowpea, field bean, cucurbits, mango, citrus, hibiscus, rose, ficus, coffee, tea, and many more.{{cite web | url=http://www.nbair.res.in/insectpests/Somena-scintillans.php | title=Somena scintillans (Walker) | publisher=ICAR-National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources | accessdate=21 July 2016}}