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Hypocala
violacea Butler
Hypocala
violacea Butler,
1879, Trans.
ent. Soc. London, 1879: 6.
Hypocala
clarissima Butler,
1892, Ann.
Mag. nat. Hist. (6), 10: 21.
Hypocala kebeae Bethune-Baker, 1906, Novit. zool.,
13: 249.
Hypocala
violacea Butler;
Holloway, 1976: 35.
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Mature
larvae of Hypocala
violacea.
Images captured digitally by Mr Hok Kim Loong. |
Diagnosis.
The forewings are a more uniform rufous and violet brown, marks on the distal
margin being reduced to a pair of dots at the tornus, the inner one white, the
outer one black, ringed white, an enlarged member of the marginal row of white
dots. The hindwing underside is broadly fawn over the anterior half, with darker
striae.
Geographical
range. Indo-Australian tropics.
Habitat
preference. The species is recorded over a similar habitat and altitude
range to andamana, though one specimen has been taken as high as 2600m
on G. Kinabalu. It was particularly common in samples from upper montane forest
at around 1780m on G. Mulu, but this may have been a hill-topping
phenomenon.
Biology.
Bell (MS) described the larva, as possibly did Sevastopulo (1939b) under deflorata,
as the larva sounds very similar to Bell’s description. General
characteristics are as described for the genus, though A8 has a distinct
transverse tumidity. The head is variably orange to black, and the body is
black. Subdorsal and supraspiracular bands are present, each consisting of three
white lines, the central one of each trio being bluer and more broken. There is
a single subspiracular white line. Around each spiracle is an orange patch,
often with some yellow elements. The tumidity of A8 is also variably pinkish
orange or pink in a large transverse band. There is a triangular yellow patch
laterally on A1, and diagonal yellow (or sometimes white) bands arising from the
spiracles on A3-A6 back to the prolegs on the segment behind. The ventral
surface is fuscous green grading more fuscous away from the centre. There is
also a green variant of the larva, with the triple bands with yellow (subdorsal
) and grey (supraspiracular) lines. A larva reared out in Peninsular Malaysia by
H.S. Barlow (pers. comm.) is intermediate in colouring, being green dorsally
and ventrally, and black laterally, but has similar patterning. It is
illustrated in Plate 28. The general behaviour of the larvae and the mode of
pupation is as described in the generic account and for H.
deflorata above.
The host
plant recorded by both Bell and Barlow (see also Robinson et al.,
2001) was Diospyros
(Ebenaceae).
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