Dr. Ali thank you for the information. 

I really appreciate the effort of Dr. Ali and we are also working on this insect aspect w.r.t molecular biology and cellular genomics in IGCDBL lab, UA,F and identified quite similar species. Here you can find some more

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=cucumber+moth&qpvt=cucumber+moth

Dr. Javed thank you so much for information. Would you tell me what is this bushy appearance on moth's tail? Is it present in both male and female and what is its purpose? As, I observed this moth, it was moving it's tail sideways.

Thanks-

Diaphania indica, the cucumber moth or cotton caterpillar. it is occasionally a significant pest of cucurbits and some other plants.

Please see the following link:

https://www.africanmoths.com/pages/CRAMBIDAE/SPILOMELINAE/diaphania%20indica.htm

Hair pencils at the end of the moth for releasing pheromone. Only males have these structures.

Dear Dr. Ebert thank you for information.

-Sapna.

Dear Dr. Timothy A Ebert kindly correct if I’m wrong , I understand that the tuft structure is found more prominent in female than male. Yes, it is useful for the pheromone releasing, therefore, in males it is vestigial. In the virgin female the bush forms twisted some what eight shape structure, presumably, to make wider spreading of pheromone.

Miss Menghwar, first of all feeling sorry to reply late due to work on research papers. and I am not a doctor but a master student with quite attractive interest in insects with masters research on insects genes and plant defense signalization.

In my point of views and some of skimming not detailed study, the abdominal tuft of hair in moths is mostly present, in profuse, in females but males may have but not so plentiful. In sugarcane and other moth borers, females after laying eggs, cover these eggs with abdominal hairs-a protection strategy; and I personally noted them in field. Simultaneously noticing the comments of MR. Timothy A Ebert are also a new knowledge for me, and if he can provide any source I' ll be highly thankful.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hair-pencil is where I got the original answer, and Wikipedia is often fairly good with questions like this. However, it is not perfect. So I checked R.F. Chapman "Insects Structure and Function" and it only talks about hair pencils with male lepidoptera. I checked Gullan and Cranston "The Insects: An outline of entomology" and it is described this way: The female releases a long distance attractant pheromone. In courtship, close-up chemical communication involves extrusible abdominal hairpencils which produce a pheromone that is dusted directly onto the antennae of the female. In this text they provide this example and state "as with several other lepidopterans." There is no contrary example for females with hairpencils, but there are examples for females with specialized structures for releasing pheromone, and it does limit the example to lepidoptera. A search of the Web of Science database for the key word "hairpencil" gives 41 hits and all of them relate to male lepidoptera. I can find another 18 citations with the key word "hair pencil" that included variants like "hair-pencil". Here is one example: "The role of chemical communication in sexual selection: hair-pencil displays in the diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella" Davie et al. 2010. Animal Behaviour 79(2)391-399. The abstract indicates that the research used males.

In an unrelated note, it would be Dr. Timothy A Ebert. However, I am not a specialist in insect morphology. It is always good to question the answers in RG, because mistakes can be made with even the best of intentions. However, in this case, I will stick to my original answer unless someone can provide citations where female lepidoptera have structures called hair-pencils (which are prominantly displayed in the picture that went with the original question).

Pencil hair are found on female of Diaphania indica please see: fig 1A: kinnjo and arakakai applied (1997 )entomology and zoology 1997- 32 : 641 644

Dear Dr. Timothy A Ebert thank you for detailed information with references. I had the rough idea about the males (only) with hair pencils, well, thanks for confirmation. Moreover, can I ask you another favor? Is Web of Science database accessible without departmental email id? However, I did not find any option available to access it.

Thanks again.

-Sapna.

Dear Dr M.Farhanullah Khan thank you for response. Can you provide me research paper you mentioned or any link leading to it, as I could not find any.

Thank you.

-Sapna.

I have not this paper right now. However, I think if put the reference on Google you can find this one.

I would like to inform you that sugarcane top borer Scirpophaga nivella female also possesses hair bunch at her abdominal tip

I looked for Scirpophaga nivella. I found that the female has an anal tuft. The anal tuft will always be present. Hair pencils will only be visible if the male moth is releasing pheromones. I could not find the paper mentioned.

Web of Science is like Scopus. Both are large databases that allow people to search millions of published articles (books, journals, theses, dissertations). Neither is free, though university libraries will often have this (or an equivalent) available to faculty and students.

Dear Dr Ebert and Dr Khan thank you so much for all the precious information. Because of both of your comments we have come to know many things about this moth. I hope to have such detailed discussion with you again.

Stay blessed!

-Sapna.

A free version of Web of Science would be Google scholar (scholar.google.com). Google scholar is not as complete as Scopus or Web of Science, though none of these are actually complete. Searching on one will turn up things that the others missed.

Thanks Dr. Ebert.

Buen día Sapna!!... acá en Colombia es una polilla de interés económico en: Estropajo,Luffa cilindrica (L.);, Pepino, Cucumis sativus L.; Calabaza, Cucurbita pepo (L:); Ahuyama, Cucurbita maxima Duch..; Melón Cucumis melo L.; Sandía Citrullus vulgaris Schrad.; (Cucurbitacea) y se llama Diaphania hyalinata (L.)( Lepidoptera: Pyralidae ), macho.

Estimado Dr. Quiroz, gracias por responder a mi pregunta. Además, es bueno saber que es la plaga económica en Columbia. No importa mi español, todavía estoy aprendiendo.

This insect belongs to family Pyralidae

Not possible to identify exact species without looking to virtural specimen

Dr Hegde thank you for comment. Currently, at this level, I wanted to know the common name of this insect. However, I came to know a lot of information from brilliant researchers, Particularly, Dr. Timothy A Ebert has shared many insights on this cucumber moth and you can read them in comments above.

I agree with Dr. Quiroz, and in Brazil Diaphania hyalinata is too an important pest of cucumbers.