About the Common Forest Looper
Pseudocoremia suavis, the common forest looper, is a species of moth in the family Geometridae. It is regarded as being endemic to New Zealand. In 2007, however, the moth was found in west Cornwall, Great Britain, the first time it has been found outside of New Zealand.
The common forest looper is endemic and common throughout New Zealand feeding on many species of trees and shrubs. An unidentified specimen was caught on 15 April 2007 by Tony James at a regular garden light trap, approximately, near Tregonning Hill in the parish of Breage. By October a further four were caught in the same garden; although it took a year before the specimens were identified by the Natural History Museum, London. The garden is adjacent to a small plant nursery and it is possible the moth may have been introduced on plants from another British nursery.
The descriptions below are mainly from an individual female caught on 30 October 2015 in west Cornwall and retained for breeding. The larvae were reared at 15–20 °C, in air-tight plastic boxes. The female laid sixty eggs, some individually but most in groups of fourteen to twenty along the edge of tissue paper. When... Wikipedia →