Moths of Pakistan

Moths are a group of insects related to the butterflies and belonging to the order Lepidoptera. Most lepidopterans are moths and there are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth.

The modern English word "moth" comes from Old English "moððe".

Moth larvae, or caterpillars, make cocoons from which they emerge as fully grown moths with wings. Some moth caterpillars dig holes in the ground, where they live until they are ready to turn into adult moths.

Moths, and particularly their caterpillars, are a major agricultural pest in many parts of the world.

Some moths are farmed. The most notable of these is the silkworm

Following is list Moths of Pakistan 

• Acantholipes circumdata

Acantholipes circumdata is a species of moth in the Erebidae family. The species is found from India and Pakistan through Afghanistan and Iran to the Arabian Peninsula and Eastern Africa.

• Agdistis tamaricis

The Tamarisk Plume (Agdistis tamaricis) is a moth of the Pterophoridae family. In the Palaearctic ecozone, The wingspan is 18–27 mm, Adults are on wing from March to October in multiple generations.

• Aglossa aglossalis

Aglossa aglossalis is a species of snout moths in the genus Aglossa. It is known from Pakistan, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Iraq, Iran, India,  Sudan and the United Arab Emirates

• Anumeta spilota

Anumeta spilota is a moth of the Noctuidae family. It is found from the western parts of the Sahara to the Sinai, Israel, central Asia, Pakistan and India.

• Asota ficus

Asota ficus is a moth in the family Noctuidae. It is found in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia (Sumatra), Laos, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand and northern Vietnam..The wingspan is about 67 mm.

• Coleophora alcyonipennella

The Clover Case-bearer or Small Clover Case-bearer (Coleophora alcyonipennella) is a moth of the Coleophoridae family. It is native to Europe, the eastern Palearctic ecozone, Pakistan, the Near East and North AfricaIt is an introduced species in New Zealand and Australia, where it is now found from southern Queensland to Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania.

The wingspan is 12–14 mm. Adults are on wing in May and June and again in late July and August in two generations in western Europe. Adults feed on the nectar of clover flowers.

The larvae feed on Trifolium repens and Trifolium fragiferum. They feed inside a case formed from a floret. Larvae have also been recorded on Medicago species.

• Coleophora echyropis

Coleophora echyropis is a moth of the Coleophoridae family. It is found in Kashmir,  Pakistan. 

The wingspan is about 14 mm. The antennae are white ringed fuscous and the palpi are white. The forewings are light greyish-ochreous. There is a broad white streak with two or three black specks running along the costa. The apical third of the wing is suffusedly mixed white, with a very few black specks between the veins. There is also a slender whitish-grey streak in the posterior half of the cell, with a few black scales and a greyish line with some black scales along the fold. The hindwings are grey.

• Euxoa cashmirensis

Euxoa cashmirensis is a species of moth of the Noctuidae family. It is found in Kashmir.of Pakistan

• Gypsochares catharotes

Gypsochares catharotes is a moth of the Pterophoridae family that is known from  Pakistan, South Africa and India 

The wingspan is 13–14 millimetres (0.51–0.55 in).

• Heliothis maritima

The Shoulder-striped Clover (Heliothis maritima) is a species of moth of the Noctuidae family. It is found in most of Europe, Ukraine, southern Russia and southern Siberia, Transbaikalia, Turkey, central Asia, China, Japan, the Korean Peninsula, Mongolia, northern India, Pakistan, the Russian Far East (Primorye, southern Khabarovsk, the Amur region, southern Sakhalin and the southern Kuriles).

The wingspan is 30–36 mm. Adults are on wing from June to July in western Europe.

• Paradrina clavipalpis

The pale mottled willow (Paradrina clavipalpis) is a species of moth of the family Noctuidae. It is found in the Palearctic ecozone (Europe, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Kuwait, Russia, Central Asia, Mongolia, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, northwest India). It is an introduced species in North America

The wingspan is 26–35 mm. The length of the forewings is 12–15 mm.Forewing pale to dark grey with darker dusting and sometimes tinged with ochreous; the terminal area generally fuscous; the lines starting from black costal spots; the inner and outer double, blackish, the inner minutely waved, the outer dentate; subterminal line pale, waved, preceded by a grey shade with dentate rufous marks in it; stigmata small, fuscous, the orbicular rounded, the reniform a narrow lunule, with two white dots on its inner edge and three on outer; hindwing white, the veins and termen dark grey; — in laciniosa Donz. the subterminal line consists of a row of 3 yellowish spots each extended to termen; — the form leucoptera Thnbg. , from Scandinavia, Finland, and the Ural Mts., has fuscous suffusion over the head, thorax, and forewing, the hindwing remaining white

• Scopula luridata

Scopula luridata is a moth of the Geometridae family. It is found in southern Europe, Asia Minor, China, Pakistan, India, Egypt, Somalia, Yemen, Oman and Japan

• Stenodacma pyrrhodes

Stenodacma pyrrhodes is a moth of the Pterophoridae family. It has a wide range and has been recorded fromPakistan,  Australia, India, Japan, South Africa, China, Nepal, , Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Thailand and Korea.

The wingspan is 10–11 millimetres (0.39–0.43 in).