Culladia hastiferalis

I saw this insect on my banana tree in my garden on May 19. I was fascinated by the little insect and took several pictures with macro lens. Later, when I came home and uploaded the pictures to the iNaturalist app, I learned a lot of wonderful information about this strange and beautiful little insect, which I am sharing with you today.

​Name and Family: According to the iNaturalist app, the scientific name of this beautiful insect sitting on the banana tree is Culladia hastiferalis. It is basically a small species of moth or nocturnal butterfly belonging to the Crambidae family. In our country, such small moths are usually considered as common insects or moths, and they do not have any separate known local name.

​Home and Habitat: After searching the information, I found that the origin and distribution of this moth is mainly in Asia and Oceania. They are found in abundance in the climate of countries like Borneo, Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, New Guinea, Taiwan, the Philippines and Australia. However, they are also quite common in our Bangladesh and neighboring countries. They usually prefer to live in gardens, farmlands and bushes surrounded by trees. They mainly rest under the leaves during the day.

Food and life cycle: Being moths, their life cycle is completed in four stages: egg, larva (caterpillars or caterpillars), pupa and adult moth. Their larvae mainly survive by eating leaves, stems or roots of various plants. And adult moths usually meet their food needs by drinking flower nectar. The process of their life cycle is quite remarkable, the fact that the caterpillar changes its shell and turns into such a beautiful winged moth is a strange magic of nature.

Although this small moth does a great job in maintaining the balance of the environment, its larvae sometimes cause considerable damage to farmers.

​Benefits: They are very effective in pollination. Being nocturnal, when many flowers bloom at night, these moths fly from one flower to another to collect nectar and help in pollination, which plays a major role in maintaining the balance of our ecosystem or environment. In addition, they are a major food source for animals like frogs, birds, and spiders.

​Harmfulness: Their biggest harm is their larvae or caterpillars. The larvae of this moth of the Crambidae family often cause serious damage by eating the stems and leaves of grassy plants or crops. Once they attack a crop field or garden, they quickly damage the plants and take away nutrients. Then it becomes quite difficult for farmers to control this insect.

​Overall, the insect is quite great. Have you seen such beautiful moths in your garden or on trees around your house? Let us know in the comments.

I learned about them from various sites including iNaturalist, Wikipedia and Google.

(All posts are written in Bengali and translated into English using Google Translate.)
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Camera Used	Samsung SM-G973F
F-Stop	F2.4
ISO speed	ISO
Focal length	26mm
Flash	No
Editing app	MIX
Photography	(Culladia hastiferalis)
Photographer	Hive account@mshbd
Location	Purulia, Natore, Bangladesh