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Ericeia
inangulata Guenée
Hulodes
inangulata Guenée, 1852, Hist. Nat. Insectes, Spec. gén. Lépid.
7:
210.
Remigia optativa Walker,
1858, List
Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus., 14: 1510.
Remigia
optatura Walker,
1858, List
Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus., 15: 1848.
Remigia
comitata Walker,
1865, List
Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus., 33: 1018.
Hulodes
umbrosa Walker,
1869, Characters
undescribed Lepid. Heterocera: 91.
Ericeia
intextilia Schultze, 1908, Philippine J. Sci., 3(A):
32
Ericeia
levuensis Prout, 1929, Ann. Mag. nat. Hist. (10),
3: 597.
Ericeia
certilinea Prout, 1929, Bull. Hill Mus., Witley,
3: 112.
Ericeia
intextilia Schultze; Holloway, 1976: 33.
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Ericeia
inangulata  |
Ericeia
inangulata |
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Diagnosis.
This is a large, sexually dimorphic species. The males are a dull grey-brown
with the submarginal fasciation broadly and evenly emphasised more darkly,
slightly zig-zag on the forewing. The females are a more uniform rufous brown
with the submarginals only weakly evident but usually irrorated with pale blue,
especially in a block at the forewing costa; there is always a darker brown spot
in the submarginal subdorsally on the forewing.
Taxonomic
note. Holloway (1979) noted the similarity of intextilia
and
certilinea
to
inangulata
but
did not make a formal synonymy. Both names were included as synonyms of inangulata
by
Nielsen et
al.
(1996), with a caveat that Brandt noted that the male secondary sexual
characters (but not the male genitalia) of these and levuensis were
different from those of inangulata.
Geographical
range. Indo-Australian tropics including the Marianas and Carolines; ssp.
levuensis in Fiji, Vanuatu, New Caledonia and Samoa.
Habitat
preference. Records have been made from the lowlands to 2600m, but the
species is commoner above 1500m.
Biology.
The larva was described by Sevastopulo (1943), Gardner (1947) and Bell (MS). The
prolegs on A3 are smaller than the rest but functional. The body is elongate,
tapering over the thoracic segments, and may appear humped over A1 and A2. The
head has a blackish reticulation on a ground of pinkish to yellowish brown, with
a pair of white spots on the vertex. The body is light pinkish brown, the setae
arising from white dots. There are broad, yellow to orange dorsal and lateral
bands, and the ventral surface is also yellow but suffused black centrally. The
dorsal part is marked all over with brown to black speckled that tend to be more
linear within the yellow bands. Other forms are more greenish ochreous or grey,
sometimes with more permanent speckled bands. Given the similarity of the
various species in the genus, these may not all be inangulata; indeed Bell later also cast doubt on whether just
one species is involved.
The
hatchling larvae are whitish, subsequent instars becoming blackish, with T3-A2
swollen, ovate, greenish. Mature larvae rest along sticks or twigs, but the
later stages show a strongly looping gait. Pupation is in a slight cocoon of
silk amongst litter on the ground. Gardner (1947) stated the pupa had a faint
bloom, but this is not mentioned by Bell or Sevastopulo.
Host
records (Robinson et al., 2001; references above) are mostly from the
Leguminosae (Acacia, Albizia, Cassia,
Dalbergia,
Mimosa,
Paraserianthes,
Senna,
Xylia)
but there are a few from other families: Adiantaceae (Adiantum;
Bell); Lythraceae (Lagerstroemia)
and Rutaceae (Citrus).
The
adult pierces fruit in Thailand (Bänziger, 1982; Kuroko & Lewvanich, 1993).
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