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When you hear the term night butterfly, what comes to your mind immediately are commercial sex workers who are usually active on Jalan Gajah Mada or a number of other spots at night.

But did you know that biology actually also recognizes night butterflies? Night butterfly in biology is another name for moths, insects that are closely related to butterflies.

The Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) through the NKRI Expedition with the TNI in April 2015 revealed two new types of nocturnal butterflies from the Tambora environment, a mountain that once raged 200 years ago.

Hari Sutrisno, an insect researcher at LIPI who was involved in the expedition, believes that the two types of nocturnal butterflies he found are new species. “The pattern of wing scales is different from other types,” he said.

The two moths belong to the genus Xyleutes. The species of night butterfly in this genus are spread all over the world, from Indonesia, India, Australia, to Mexico and are known to like to slit and drill tree trunks.

One species of night butterfly found in Tambora is considered new because it has large black spots on its wings. The black spot makes the night butterfly look like it has a mole.

Another species is considered new because it lacks scales. While other types of Xyleutes have perfect scales on their wings, the species found in Tambora do not have scales on the back of the wings.

The discovery of a new type of night butterfly in Tambora is interesting. The mountain ecosystem that once destroyed the three surrounding kingdoms had never been explored in depth. This finding will add to Tambora’s biodiversity data.

However, Hari said, the findings of the two new types must be anticipated. “We have to find the host plant for the two moths,” he explained when talking to Kompas.com after the presentation of the results of the NKRI Expedition in Tambora on Tuesday (12/5/2015).

The genus Xyleutes’ penchant for slitting and drilling tree trunks means that the group is a plant pest. Identification of the host plant is needed so that other crops that could be important agricultural commodities are not attacked.

The importance of identifying host plants can be seen from the case of pest attacks in North Sulawesi. A mysterious caterpillar attacked a local farmer’s clove crop, resulting in crop failure.

Hari was called to identify the pests that attack. Hari’s observations showed that the caterpillars were larvae or caterpillars of moths. The caterpillar’s body has alternating black and yellow patterns.

“I call it the yellow tire borer. It turns out to be a new species,” said Hari. He has given the species a name but has not been able to state it because the paper on the discovery of the new type of pest has not yet been published.

The pest attacks before its identity and its host plant are known. According to Hari, the host of the yellow tire borer is not actually cloves but other plants in the forest. Because the forest was damaged, the moth then looked for a new host and found cloves.

Hari believes that the two species found in Tambora can attack agricultural crops if the forest is not preserved. Species that have spots on their wings, says Hari, “have the potential to become coffee pests.”

From the case of the discovery of Xyleutes in Tambora, the benefits of the expedition to inventory biodiversity are clear. We have more insight into nature so that it can help formulate management strategies.

In fields other than insects, biodiversity inventory is also useful for identifying biota that can be utilized. Types of microbes, for example, have the potential to produce drugs and can prosper if their benefits are explored.

Source: kompas.com
Photo: http://id.m.wikipedia.org