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Sesamia
inferens Walker
Leucania
inferens Walker,
1856, List Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus., 9:105.
Leucania
proscripta Walker,
1856, Ibid., 9:106.
Sesamia
tranquilaris Butler,
1880, Proc. zool. Soc. Lond., 1880: 674.
Nonagria
gracilis Butler,
1880, Ibid., 1880: 675.
Sesamia
albiciliata Snellen,.
1880, Tijdschr. Ent., 23: 44.
Nonagria
innocens Butler,
1881, Trans. ent. Soc. Lond, 1881: 173.
Diagnosis.
This species
superficially resembles Mythimna species but has smooth, rather than
hairy, eyes. The forewing is much less striate than in Mythimna, with a
diffusely darker central streak, and darker brown at the margin, grading away
basad. The hindwings are almost pure creamy white.
Taxonomic
notes. The
costal process of the valve in the male genitalia is diagnostically curved and
serrate, the harpe relatively weak, apically squared. The species is therefore
not closely related to the diverse African complex that includes the generic
type-species where the costal process is not serrate but apically bifid, and the
harpe is massive, spinose. There are two larger, darker species with very
similar male genitalia to inferens in tropical Australasia: grisescens
Warren (New Guinea, Seram); arfaki Bethune-Baker (New Guinea). The
species is also quite distinct from S. uniformis Dudgeon (India, China),
a species with darker forewings and a costal flange rather than a long spine in
the male genitalia. S. uniformis also has very different cremaster
spining in the pupa: there is a slender apical pair and subapical lateral pairs
(six spines in all) as compared with the apically quadrifid cremaster in inferens
(Wu, 1981).
Geographical
range. Indo-Australian
tropics to Solomons.
Habitat
preference. The
species is found from the lowlands to about 1700m, but is commoner in the
former, particularly in disturbed and open habitats. During the Mulu survey it
was taken particularly commonly in alluvial forest where there were clearings or
the forest was in an early state of regeneration.
Biology.
The larva
was described by Williams (1953). It has many features general to its genus:
pinkish coloration apart from the light brown prothoracic shield; uniordinal
crochets; elongate, oval spiracles with black peritremes. Features of chaetotaxy
are also given and characters distinguishing the larva from the generic
type-species.
Host-records (e.g. Miyata, 1983) are almost entirely from Gramineae (Coix,
Echinochloa, Oryza, Panicum, Saccharum, Setaria, Triticum, Zea, Zizania), including
many of economic importance. There is one record from Diospyros (Ebenaceae)
(Miyata, 1983).
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