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Sauris
hirudinata Guenée
Sauris hirudinata Guenée, 1857, Hist. nat. Insectes, Spec.
Gen. Lep., 10: 362
Remodes abortivata Guenée,
1857, Ibid., 10: 364.
Sauris remodesaria Walker,
1862, List Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus., 24: 1253.
Remodes lobata Warren, 1895, Novit. zool., 2:107.
Sauris
hirudinata 
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Sauris
hirudinata |
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Diagnosis. Males have rather elongate ovate forewings with numerous soft, dull
green fasciae. There are a few dark spots on the margin and subdorsal streaks.
The hindwings are distally lobed, dark green but with a diagnostic pale patch
just basal to the central lobe of the margin. Females have the forewings a more
normal shape with the fasciae tinged grey over a broad medial zone and more
lightly subbasally and submarginally.
Geographical range. Sri Lanka, India, Hong Kong; Is.; Peninsular
Malaysia, Borneo (ssp. abortivata).
Habitat preference. During recent surveys a male was taken at 300m in the
Ulu Temburong and a female in secondary and coastal vegetation at Mumong in
Brunei.
Biology. Bell (MS) described the biology in India. The larva is cylindrical with
a rounded head, pale green with a fine yellow spiracular line.
It lives and feeds on the edge of a young leaf (the egg of some species
is usually laid on the leaf edge (e.g. Murphy, 1990)), with the body at rest
held out at 45 degrees or curved with the front segments resting on the
leaf surface. In one description Bell noted that the pupa was suspended 'both by the tail and a body string like a pierid pupa' . This
characteristic needs further investigation: another Sauris described by
Bell pupates in a slight cell or web of silk, attached by the tail.
The host-plants were Alseodaphne (Lauraceae) and Lagerstroemia
(Lythraceae).
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