D|NgYoNg

There has been BIG moth invasion ard Singapore Households in the past 2 months. And i bet not onli the gers, the guys will also freak out... coz i'm also 1 of them!!! seeing as many as 5 in the same area..... I also read it somewhere tt in a JC, the bois freak out and shouted and run away.

The moth belonging to the family of Uraniidae has been sighted in many places all over around Singapore and Malaysia. It is also known as Lyssa zampa or Uranid. It has white-striped variably dark-brown to brownish-grey large wings. This moth, with a wing span of up to 20 cm, is the 2nd largest moth in Singapore. (The largest being the Altals Moth - Attacus atlas ,which has a wing span of about 26 cm). This moth is usually seen in the forest and occasionally in urban areas. It is believed that this sudden population explosion is due to a combination of environmental factors such as weather and decreased in predators of caterpillars such as birds, lizards, parasitic flies and wasps.

Talking abt the atlas moth i once rmb when i was young living in pasir ris dr4 blk 482, an atlas moth flew into my 3rs storey living rm and scare me to hell coz it is damn BIG and its' body is damn THICK!!!

The Uranid is found across the Indo-Australian region and is usually enountered in forested areas and nearby urban areas, as it is attracted to the lights there. Altitudinally, they can be found as high as 2,600 metres on Gunung Kinabalu, Sabah! The food plants of the caterpillars are reportedly species of Endospermum (Family Euphorbiaceae), such as eugenia, can be found along the road site of Tampines JC, several parks. Eugenia basically is very common in singapore.

There were half a dozen of reports of the Uranid appeareances in Tuas, Great World City (image, top), Lorong Chuan, Bishan Park (five seen in one flat), Kent Ridge, Holland Village, Ghim Moh, North Buona Vista Road and Bukit Timah. I have seen them in Tampines, bedok and of course Pasir Ris.

Robin Yan adds - "I've spotted four at Raffles Place area. More precisely outside Han's restaurant along Pickering Street. There's even one outside my 23rd floor office window in Ocean Towers. Both sightings were made this afternoon (Friday, 27th Mary 2005) around 12 to 1.30pm."

During the moth of May i have seen quite a number of them and on 1 night, 1 Uranid moth was on the corridor window beside my door. Without noticing, i open the gate and "clark" the moth flew ard me!!! EEEk!!!!!!! Damn and it was even nearer to my door. When june came, i thought that the moth season is gone but i was wrong when recently i saw so many in my area. Everynight there will be at least 1 moth at my 10 storey high corridor. And i in the morning i saw 5 in the nxt block void deck!!! 2 days ago when i walk pass the child care centre at my void deck the Uranid moth suddenly flew towards me!!!

My auntie in bedok also living on the 10th floor told us tt 1 night 11 plus she walk out of the lift and saw 3 Uranid moth tgt!!! in fornt of her door steps!!! and she dare not go home... so call up my grandma..... and started calling my uncle but his fine was off and so she call us but we had 2 outside the corridor!!! OMG..................

And 2dae afgt my lunch 1 of it was resting on the floor in fornt of the lift.... and the idiot cleaner supervisor like nv see it (thought 3 ppl were ard staring at it liao) step on it luckily the moth flew away in time.

Though the Uranid moth is harmless so much so diff from most of the moths tt can cause rashes, the look and the size of it reallie freak ppl out!!!

There are ways to prevent their invasion to ur hse however these are onli measures.....
CHANGE UR WHITE FLUROSCENT LAMP OR BULB TO TUNGSTEN!!!