Utetheisa pulchella (Linnaeus, 1758) COMMON NAME(S): Crimson Speckled Footman. SYNONYM(S): Noctua pulchra Denis & Schifferm̧ller, 1775; Lithosia amabilis Trost, 1801; Deiopeia candida Butler, 1877; Deiopeia thyter Butler, 1877; Deiopeia antennata (Swinhoe, 1893b). IUCN STATUS: Not Evaluated (NE) DISTRIBUTION: Algeria, Angola, Bahrain, Burundi, Cameroon, Cabo Verde, Chad, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Maldives, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Oman, Réunion, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, Tanzania, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe. LOCALITY IN ZAMBIA: ‘Lusaka’, in Lusaka Province. LARVAL HOSTPLANT(S): Host plants of the taxon include: one Boraginaceae species (Trichodesma zeylanicum (Burm.f.) R.Br.) in the Réunion (Martiré & Rochat 2008) and four Boraginaceae species (Trichodesma sp., Myosotis sp., Heliotropium sp. and Lithospermum sp.), one Musaceae species (Musa sp.) and one Malvaceae species (Gossypium sp.) in unnamed African country or countries (Pinhey 1975; Wiltshire 1990). The African Moths (2019) webpage lists the following as larval foodplants of the taxon: four Boraginaceae species (Heliotropium indicum L., Myosotis sp., Cystostemon sp. and Trichodesma zeylanicum (Burm.f.) R.Br.)), one Boraginaceae species (Musa paradisiaca subsp. sapientum (L.) Kuntze ex K.Schum.) and several grass (Musaceae) species nyet to be identified. SOURCES: African Moths 2019; De Prins & De Prins 2022; Hampson 1901a; Martiré & Rochat 2008; Pinhey 1975; Wiltshire 1990.

Published as part of Mbata, Keith J. & Prins, Jurate De, 2023, Annotated checklist of moths of Zambia (Insecta: Lepidoptera), pp. 1-503 in Zootaxa 5354 (1) on page 300, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5354.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/10130434