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Earias
cupreoviridis
Walker
Xanthoptera?
cupreoviridis
Walker, 1862, Trans. ent. Soc. London, (3) 1: 92.
Earias?
chromataria
Walker, 1863 (April 18), List Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus., 27: 204.
Earias fulvidana
Wallengren, 1863 (May), Wien. ent. Monatschr., 7: 143.
Eariasxe fervida
Walker, 1866, List Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus., 35: 1774.
Earias limbana
Snellen, 1879, Tijdschr. Ent., 22: 97.
Earias cupreoviridis
decolorata
Warren, 1913, Gross-Schmett. Erde, 3: 296.
Earias
cupreoviridis
Walker; Kobes, 1997: 49.
Diagnosis. This is the smallest Bornean Earias, distinguished by the
broad and rather irregular reddish brown border to the slightly greenish yellow
forewings.
Geographical range. African and Oriental tropics east to Maluku.
Habitat preference. The only specimen taken in recent surveys was from the
coast of Brunei near an area of mangrove, but there are older specimens from
Tenom in the lowlands of Sabah.
Biology. Bell (MS) described the life history in India but misidentified the
species as luteolaria. Gardner (1941, 1947) also described it, with
details of chaetotaxy. The larva is shaped and spined as in E. flavida,
and similarly finely pilose. The colour is light pinkish brown, speckled with
olive green and with fuscous suffusion obliquely or blotching dorsolaterally to
laterally on most segments (smoky grey and dirty white according to Gardner
(1941)). The dorsolateral tubercles of T2 and T3 are flushed orange, the rest
pinkish brown. There are jet black spots on T2, T3, A2, A3 and A5-7 just above
the spiracles and on A1-3, A5 and A8 by the subdorsal tubercles.
The eggs are laid on very young shoots, and the larvae live concealed amongst
opening leaf buds, living more on the young leaves as both larva and leaf reach
maturity. They eat irregularly from the edge of the leaf or make holes in the
middle. Pupation is in ovoid cocoons without any anterior peak on the bark of
twigs or branches.
The pupa is similar to that of Earias vittella but A10 is only slightly
convex with the upper semicircle of the margin beaded with 30 teeth, the most
lateral three on each side being larger and coarser.
The host-plant was given by Bell as ‘dhanni’. Apart from one unpublished IIE
record from rice and that of Mell (1943) from Diospyros (Ebenaceae), all
host records are from Malvaceae or Tiliaceae (Gardner, 1941, 1947; Zhang, 1994;
Robinson et al., 2001): Abelmoschus, Gossypium, Hibiscus,
Kydia, Malvastrum and Sida in the former; Corchorus
and Grewia in the latter.
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