Its preferred host plants are amaranths (genus "Amaranthus"). This species, as with many other of the amaranths, is originally from the American tropics. In Arizona, it often eats the seeds of amaranths and inkweed. Gomphrena, the globe amaranths, is a genus of plants in the family Amaranthaceae. Bip native to Jiaxiang, Kaohsiung, and some say they are globe amaranths ("Gomphrena globosa" L).