Female Flower-tail or Cucumber Moth (Diaphania indica, Crambidae)

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These moths exhibit a tuft of "hairs" on the tip of the abdomen, vestigial in the male but well-developed in the female. It is formed by long scales which are carried in a pocket on each side of the abdomen from where they can be everted to form the tufts. Unfertilized females are often seen sitting around with the tuft fully spread, forming two flower-like clumps of scales, and what the photo cannot show you is the way the scales hypnotically move as if by a gentle breeze as they spread…

Butterflies

Nature