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Polydesma
boarmoides Guenée
Polydesma
boarmoides Guenée, 1852, Hist. nat. Insectes,
Spec.
gén. Lépid., 6: 441.
Polydesma
mastrucata Felder & Rogenhofer, 1874, Reise öst. Fregatte Novara,
Lep. 4.: pl. 111, f. 31.
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Polydesma
boarmoides 
(Singapore)
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Diagnosis.
The name of this species reflects its superficial resemblance to some ennomine
Geometridae of the tribe Boarmiini, particularly the genus Racotis
Moore,
but the fasciation is more clearly defined and differs considerably on the
underside where the broadest band is set well in from the margin with a sharp
distal boundary and an extensively diffuse basal one, that is very much broader
in the male, particularly on the hindwing.
Geographical
range. Indo-Australian tropics east to Australia, Fiji, New Caledonia,
also recorded from the Marianas, Carolines, Society Is. and Hawaii.
Habitat
preference. Chey (1994) recorded a single specimen in a Gmelina
plantation
at Brumas in the lowlands of Sabah.
Biology.
Life history descriptions and host records for P. umbricola within
the region (Robinson et al., 2001) are probably all referable to boarmoides
(Robinson,
1975; reference to the larval description by Gardner discussed below).
Gardner
(1948a) described the larva (as umbricola). The anal prolegs are all well
developed as in the Pandesmini, and it also shares with this group an unusual
mandibular structure with an internal armature of denticles, though fewer than
in Pandesma.
The larval description generally is very similar to that of Pandesma,
as is the indication of bark-feeding, though records cited by Robinson et
al. (2001)
also note foliage-feeding. Sevastopulo (1944) described the larva as having a
dark brown head with a pale, inverted V-mark. The body is mottled with dark and
pale brown: darker streaks and dots on a creamy ground, the mottling coalesced
into irregular stripes.
Pupation
is in a thick cocoon of papery white silk. The pupa has a thick white bloom (Sevastopulo,
1944).
Host
plants recorded (Robinson et al., 2001) are mostly from mimosoid
Leguminosae: Acacia, Albizia, Pithecellobium;
records from Salix
(Salicaceae)
and Litchi
(Sapindaceae)
need further investigation. P. scriptilis is also recorded as feeding on Albizia
(Robinson
et
al.).
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