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Rusicada
albitibia Walker
comb. n.
Gonitis
albitibia, Walker [1858] 1867, List Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus.,
13: 1001.
Lineopalpa
sugama Swinhoe, 1906, Ann. Mag. nat. Hist. (7),
18: 408.
Anomis
leptocypha Prout, 1926, Entomologist, 59: 78.
Anomis
metaxantha Walker
sensu
Inoue
et
al.
1982: (1) 859, (2) 393.
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Rusicada
albitibia 
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Diagnosis.
The forewings are a vinous grey-brown, sometimes with orange suffusion. In the male genitalia the central subapical projection
of the valve is transverse as in combinans,
but the juxta is rounded, entire apically, not distinctly bilobed.
Geographical
range. Indian Subregion to Japan, Queensland and the Solomons.
Habitat
preference. No records have been made in recent surveys but there are two
specimens from the low-lying island of Pulo Laut in BMNH.
Biology.
The species has been reared in the Solomons by Bigger (1988, pers.
comm.),
who illustrated and described the larva. The head is pale bluish green with
faint whitish green reticulated mottling. The body is a pale slightly bluish
green with the posterior margins of most segments yellow. There is a thin
yellow, interrupted mid-dorsal line and similar lateral lines above and below
spiracles, and a dorsolateral line. There are numerous pale yellow spots around
the setal bases and elsewhere; the setae arise from black spots (brownish on
abdominal segments posterior to the seventh). The spiracles are straw-coloured
within a thin black outer ring. The thoracic legs are pale and the crochets on
the prolegs brown. A description by Moore (1884-1887) attributed to nigritarsis may also be of the larva of albitibia
(see
p. 234).
The
host-plant recorded by Bigger was Hibiscus (Malvaceae).
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