CLOSED: Ugly looking Skipper or what?

... but when in flight, it shows its orange coloured wing that probably is folded and concealed underneath its unattractive wings and even its appearance. Look at its tiny blue tipped antennae! Which is this? It was a bit elusive, but I caught it with patience. Hides in dark areas.

Dinu, that is UGLY but wow.... It looks like a little Rhino.....

Really special.... Kind of pretty?!?!

Where are you in India? My Father In Law lives in Goa.

Hi dangitgirl,
Yea, Rhino is the right comparison.

I'm 16 hours drive south of Goa. Glad to know that!! Where in Goa?

I believe this is a type of moth -- not a skipper.
I've seen other moths in the US with the little tuft of hair stickin up like that too.

I don't know... I just know they have siestas there... Even though it is not spain....funny huh....

But it gets awakened by me moving around and changes its place and goes to another darker area. In flight, it is just beautifully orange in colour!! I'm hoping someone will come with its identity as that would take me to pictures in links where someone would have posted with its wings open and in flight!! You can see those tiny antennae - more like stubs - are beautifully blue, a shame to its ugliness as it sits or sleeps!

Dinu, it does remind me a lot of a Hummingbird Moth when it rests, they have a large head too. I searched for 'horned moth india' and found one which has similar characteristics except for the antennae.

http://tpittaway.tripod.com/china/p_den.htm

The main page has many pics on it to look through.

http://tpittaway.tripod.com/china/china.htm

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/751194/
Going by "horns" here in my picture, is it any link to this since it is also found in my garden?

It could easily be that Dinu, there are pics of caterpillars too on some pages.

There is also a links page which has others areas, it might pay to look also on this one as India is also included in this area for some species.

http://www.sphin-sea.unibas.ch/

http://www.sphin-sea.unibas.ch/SphinSEA/SphinSEA_creation.htm

The links page,

http://tpittaway.tripod.com/china/chilinks.htm

Okay I'll check it up soon.

Those little blue stubs are not its antennae! You can see one antenna in your picture, starting just above the eye and angled down to the left to almost touch its second leg.

I wonder what the little blue tipped things are Ken, I can see the antennae, they must be some sort of radar sensor!

Dinu, I have been looking a little further, having fun, and found some good sites which may be of use to you another time.

This site has some moths on, one called Othreis fullonia show similarities and has orange underwings, but I don't see the hairy tufts. It was taken in Mysore!

http://indiabutterflies.tripod.com/moths/index.html

From this site,

http://indiabutterflies.tripod.com/

Which was a link on this site, here towards the bottom are links including Yahoo Butterfly and Moth groups.

http://butterflyindianews.blogspot.com/

This link has two main links to Peninsular and Northe-east India, here you will find pictures of hundreds of butterflies.

http://www.bio.utexas.edu/grad/krushnamegh/Moorings/PhotographyIndianButt.htm

I found more pics of Othreis fullonia, it's a fruit piercing moth, and this one appears to have the small 'antennae things'. I wonder if yours is another species of the same Genus, or perhaps it's a sex difference to have the hairy tufts.

http://www2.dpi.qld.gov.au/horticulture/5541.html

http://aolsearch.aol.co.uk/aol/image?query=Othreis%20fullonia&invocationType=imageTab

This article describes the caterpillar which can be green.

http://www.extento.hawaii.edu/Kbase/crop/Type/othreis.htm

It also belongs to the Noctuidae Family which I have been searching without success, I have a Silver Y Moth which has similarities and belongs to that family.

I think that Eudocima fullonia the fruit-piercing moth, also known as Othreis fullonia is a strong possibility. That species does have the two horns on its nose with blue tips as can be seen in the third image on this site: http://www.padil.gov.au/viewPest.aspx?id=742
and also here: http://www.padil.gov.au/viewPest.aspx?id=742
That second site, also shows the strange crested appearance on the shoulders of the wings, although their picture is of a male and yours would seem to be the less ornate female.

Kennedy

I can't get those links Ken, it says server error. I put in the address and it said it doesn't exist or access denied.

One of the two sites seems to have disappeared. I cannot enter it now. The other one should have been: http://www-staff.mcs.uts.edu.au/~don/larvae/cato/fullon.html

For the first one, the image of the female as a thumbnail is still visible on a Google image search, although the link to the site itself is now broken

Using Google, search for "Eudocima fullonia" selecting image search. When I do it, the 12th image shown is of a female upper wing and shows markings very close to Dinu's moth.

Kennedy

See if this works:

http://www.endemia.nc/faune/photo.php?code=2199

For the sake of comparisons, here is a pic of Eudocima materna

http://www.usyd.edu.au/museums/larvae/cato/materna.html

The pic on this site second down is of a male Eudocima fullonia.

http://www2.dpi.qld.gov.au/horticulture/5541.html

It also states:

"The main species active on citrus are Eudocima [Othreis] fullonia, Eudocima [Othreis] materna and Eudocima salaminia. They have 7-10 cm wingspans, with forewings of mottled brown, grey or green and silvery white. The forewings of males and females differ in the first two species. "

Eudocima materna shown on the next link, 7th row down with 3 different colourings.

http://mothphotographersgroup.msstate.edu/Files/45/Plate45a.shtml

http://mothphotographersgroup.msstate.edu/Files/Live/Species/8000/8543.shtml

Eudocima tyrannus many pics next link, the horns look a different shape.

http://www.jpmoth.org/Noctuidae/Calpinae/Eudocima_tyrannus.html

Two pics of Eudocima fullonia listed as from Thailand, of course we know this one was pictured in Mysore too.

http://www.thebugmaniac.be/alainimages/moths/noctuidae/othreis%20fullonia.JPG

http://www.thebugmaniac.be/onderverdelingmoths/noctuidae.htm

All very interesting. I think we can be pretty sure it is an Eudocima species.
Although Eudocima tyrannus looks close, it has consistently the sharp angle at the wing-tip which does not fit Dinu's moth.
I still lean towards a female Eudocima fullonia, but not with much confidence. Maybe that missing site will return and we can look at their female image again.

Okay, we'll not leave this unidentified! This is another picture I took the other day and is of poor quality. But when I saw it on my PC, there was another in the background. In fact, I chased it down to this hibiscus plant and it was in shade. I had to brighten this picture. I wonder if this would further guide us.

These may be slightly different as well --- to add to the confusion! LOL.

This message was edited Oct 29, 2007 7:34 PM

Dinu, that latest one looks a very good match to the male of Eudocima materna as pictured here: http://www.inra.fr/internet/Produits/PAPILLON/noctuid/ophideri/textfr/e_matern.htm

The first picture however does not seem to match the female of Eudocima materna. I still prefer the female Eudocima fullonia for your first picture. The link I gave before seems to be working now. Here it is again: http://www.padil.gov.au/viewPest.aspx?id=742
look at the third picture, with the caption Opposite sex dorsal.