Heliotrope Moth

Utetheisa pulchelloides Hampson, 1907. These colourful little moths appear, in great numbers, in our backyard every year. Their host plant (Heliotropium indicum) sprouts up, in March, and pretty soon the larvae can be seen eating the leaves. In May and June, the adults seem to outnumber all of the other moths and butterflies in the area. I don't quite know how to describe their style of flying, but it is very distinctive. It looks as if their bodies are too heavy for the wings. There is a lot of fluttering which doesn't seem to produce much speed and they land rather "heavily".