Diaphania indica, the cucumber moth from Koottanad Palakkad Kerala India Diaphania indica, the cucumber moth or cotton caterpillar, is a widespread but mainly Old World moth species. It belongs to the grass moth family, and therein to the large subfamily Spilomelinae. This moth occurs in many tropical and subtropical regions outside the Americas, though it is native to southern Asia; it is occasionally a significant pest of cucurbits and some other plants. This species was originally described by William Wilson Saunders in 1851 under the misspelled name Eudioptes indica (properly:Eudioptis), using specimens from Java. His syntypes are in the Hope Entomological Collections of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History.Clarke (1986)
No narrative description available for this taxon yet.
A DNA barcode is a short, standardised stretch of genes that works like a fingerprint — enough to tell one species from another. Below is the molecular trace Diaphania indica has left across the world's sequence archives.
At a glance
DNA specimens102
BINs1
Marker genes3
eDNA detections116
Countries24
The DNA barcodethe species' typical barcode, built from every sequenced specimen
COI-5P658 bp consensus94 specimens
ACGT
▸ drag or hover over the strip to read any position — letter and how much it varies
Violet ticks below the strip = positions where individuals differ; flat = the species' unchanging signature. 97% of positions are identical in every specimen.
Where individuals differ — all 17 variable positions, in barcode order
Each circle is a barcode variant; bigger = more specimens, colour = region. Lines join the most similar variants and the tick marks count the mutations between them — a tight cluster is one “dialect”, a long line a more divergent lineage. Click a circle to list its actual specimens.
Diversity (π)1.00%
Haplotypes28
BIN1
Most divergent pair3.5%
AsiaOceaniaS.AmericaAfrica
Closest relatives by DNA barcode
The species whose COI barcode is most similar to this one — a quick “who is this most like”. The percentage is how much the barcode differs; it approximates, but is not, the full evolutionary tree.
★ the standard DNA barcode for this group — the short region actually read to tell this species apart. The rest are extra genes sequenced along the way.
★COI-5P18S-5PCYTB
animal barcoderibosomalmitochondrial
08Occurrence & distribution
Record type2 849 records
Wild obs. + sensor2 544
Museum / vouchered305
Origin
Native4
Range
Area of Occupancy AOO7 544 km²
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Coordinate accuracy82% within 1 km
≤100 m 917≤1 km 382≤10 km 158>10 km 134
1 591 georeferenced · 953 without coordinates
Open the mapobservation + sensor2 544
Museum / Voucheredphysical evidence
Backed by a physical specimen — a herbarium sheet, sample or voucher held in a collection. “Vouchered” means supported by material evidence, not just an observation.
Coordinate accuracy21% within 1 km
≤100 m 4≤1 km 27≤10 km 100>10 km 14
145 georeferenced · 160 without coordinates
Open the institutions mapphysical evidence305
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
10Collections & institutions
Holding institutions15 of 39 geolocated
Institutions and collections holding physical, vouchered specimens of this species — click a row to fly to it on the map.
Institution
Specimens
Australian National Fish Collectionlocation not on record
100
tesrilocation not on record
25
Helsinki, FI
23
Natick, US
21
Muséum d'histoire naturelle de Marseillelocation not on record
21
National Museum of Natural Sciencelocation not on record
20
New Haven, US
10
Mangilao, GU
6
DPIlocation not on record
6
KOMlocation not on record
5
Sydney, AU
4
SUVlocation not on record
4
Kawasaki Shi Tama Ku, JP
3
The University of the West Indies, Trinidad and Tobagolocation not on record
2
Tapachula, MX
2
Mississippi State, US
2
HUNMlocation not on record
2
Auckland, NZ
2
Toyota city nature sanctuarylocation not on record
2
NHMOlocation not on record
2
Tartu, EE
2
National Institute of Biological Resourceslocation not on record
1
Laboratoire Biométrie et Biologie Evolutive, University Lyon 1location not on record
1
Tallinn, EE
1
National Institute for Agro-Environmental Scienceslocation not on record
1
Nagatoro-machi, Chichibu-gun, JP
1
El Colegio de la Frontera Surlocation not on record
1
Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural Historylocation not on record
1
Australian National Insect Collectionlocation not on record
1
Bavarian State Collection of Zoologylocation not on record
1
ZSMlocation not on record
1
Hiwa Museum of Natural Historylocation not on record
1
Georgia Museum of Natural Historylocation not on record
1
Tamil Nadu Agricultural Universitylocation not on record
1
University of Pennsylvanialocation not on record
1
Chiba, JP
1
Zürich, CH
1
Shiojiri City Museum of Natural Historylocation not on record
1
Tomioka, JP
1
39 institutions · 282 of 305 vouchered records shown · 23 without an institution code
09Environmental DNA116 detections
Where the DNA of Diaphania indica was picked up in samples of water, soil or air — nobody saw the organism, only its DNA left behind. A trace is a clue that the species was near, not a confirmed sighting.
Signal
Detections DNA found116
Studies independent surveys1
Countries24
Signal confidence: weakweighed across independent studies, places & mapped detections
DNA read depthRead counts were not reported for this species — the map shows presence only, not how strong each trace was.
Modelled climatemodelled
−15°Ctemperature across detection sites+40°C
Temperature median24.2 °C 19.3–27.6
Seasonal swing summer↔winter8.40 °C
Max temp (day)27.5 °C 24.1–32.8
Min temp (night)20.2 °C 14.0–25.0
Precipitation86.9 mm/mo 14.2–285
Air humidity61.9 % 51.0–71.2
Moisture balance-56.1 mm/mo -108–328
Vapour deficit1,065 Pa 855–1,559
Wind speed2.50 m/s 1.50–4.30
Cloud cover30.7 % 16.1–57.4
CHELSA 1981–2010, ~9 km grid, at location & month of 105 detection points · median with p10–p90 · reflects where sampling happened, not only the true niche
How to read this: each dot is one detection of this species' DNA in an environmental sample. The confidence meter weighs how many independent studies and places back up the signal — one detection in one study is a hint; many across several studies is solid. Records dated before 2008 (when eDNA methods began) are treated as likely mislabeled and left off the map.
WikipediaWikimedia Foundation4 languages↗
BioWikiNetmultilingual Wikipediamultilingual↗
GBIFGlobal Biodiversity Information Facility2 849 records↗
ENAEuropean Nucleotide Archive · EMBL-EBI116 eDNA detections↗
BOLD SystemsCentre for Biodiversity Genomics102 specimens↗
Open Tree of LifeOpenTreephylogeny backbone↗
GLoBIGlobal Biotic Interactionsbiotic interactions↗