Many insects are existing on earth that can feed on organisms’ blood. This way they do maintain a unique way to keep up with their existence. But have you heard of an insect that can feed on the blood of nearly all the organisms living on Earth? If not. then this blog is for you. The calyptra is one o such insect that is capable of sucking the blood out of every organism. We will learn more about the attributes of this insect through this article. moth feed blood of every organism
About Calyptra thalictrum.
Belonging to the family of Erebidae, Calyptra thalictrum is known as the vampire moth by many researchers. A large variety of this insect is found in Korea, Japan, Malaysia, and some region of southern China. They may also be noticed in the nearest region of Urals to the South region of Europe.
It is known that these moths were earlier restricted to only a limited area but are found in large parts of Europe for some time. There have been many decades since these moths are found in different parts of the world. For instance, the Calyptra moth was found in Finland as a report of 2000 whereas they were observed in Western Sweden from a 2008 report.
As a vampire moth.
Due to its characteristics of feeding over any type of blood, this small creature is designated as a vampire moth by many scientists. However, this name is sometimes used for other species lying under the genus Calyptra.
Their capability to drink blood from nearly all vertebrates is a bit similar but does not include all vertebrates respectively. It is due to this reason the Calyptra insect is mainly classified under such category. Even if these moths are bloodsuckers, they do not have to pose any serious threat to humans. moth feed blood of every organism
Other features.
Apart from their bloodsucking ability some of the other characteristics of this moth species are mentioned below:
- Wingspan- The wingspan of Calyptra is about 40-45 mm.
- Flight- These moths do mainly take up their flight from May to September depending on their residing region.
- Larvae feeding- Even if the adults can feed over the blood of other organisms, the larvae are capable of feeding over only on the Thalictrum species.
- This moth species do also feed on fruits and natural eatables. But when the experimentation over them was carried out over them, these moths preferred sucking the blood from a human’s skin.
Being bloodsuckers.
The Calyptra species are highly efficient in sucking the blood to let down their thirst. This is done so efficiently that they can continuously suck blood for 20 minutes. This process is an example of Mud-puddling. In this process, the male individuals gather on specific substances to collect the nutrients from them.
But such conditions are only applicable to male individuals. However, for females, copulation is the only way to acquire this process as a habit. The only requirement when the female individuals have to do mud puddling is to feed their young larvae with a leaf-rich but sodium-lacking diet.
In other words, this blood-sucking behavior of the Calyptra species is directly associated with the advantage of providing sodium to female moths. They can further pass this sodium to their offspring.
