SUBFAMILY UNASSIGNED
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Selepa celtis Moore
Selepa celtis Moore, [1860] 1858, Cat. Lepid. Insects Mus. E. Ind. Co., 2: 353.
Subrita?
curviferella Walker, 1866, List Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus., 35: 1745.
Selepa celtis ab. celtisella Strand, 1917, Arch. Naturgesch., 82 (A1): 82.
Selepa celtis celtisella Gaede, 1937, Gross-Schmett. Erde, 11: 396.

 


Selepa celtis


Diagnosis.
The forewings are a more pinkish rufous grey than in other species, and the hindwings are much paler. Females tend to have the forewings more strongly marked than males. The postmedial is rather squarely looped, finely double, and the paler antemedial is relatively regular in course, set about 1mm in from the margin (see also the next two species which both have darker hindwings). Some variants have an oval black area in the centre of the forewing, and the tornus is usually bisected by a diffuse blackish bar. In the male genitalia the saccular processes are slender and tend to follow the margins of the valves. The ventral sections of the tegumen are relatively narrow. The female has a globular bursa with a single scobinate signum at one-third.

Geographical range. Throughout the Oriental tropics, north to Taiwan and the Ryukyus, also Kei and Queensland.

Habitat preference. Three specimens taken in recent surveys were from lowland dipterocarp forest. A fourth was from 950m on G. Monkobo in Sabah.

Biology. See Kuroko & Lewvanich (1993), Mathur (1942), Bell (MS), Sevastopulo (1943), Gardner (1947). Tominaga (1999a) illustrated the larva in the Ryukyus. The head is blackish, the body rufous yellow with large black dorsal spots on A2 and A7. Primary setae only are present, these are long, stiff, whitish, conspicuous.

The host plant range is very wide (citations above; Mell, 1943; Pholboon, 1965; Browne, 1968; Yunus & Ho, 1980; Zhang, 1994; unpublished IIE records), including: Anacardium, Lannea, Mangifera (Anacardiaceae); Stereospermum (Bignoniaceae); Cassine, Elaeodendron (Celastraceae); Combretum, Terminalia (Combretaceae); Shorea (Dipterocarpaceae); Bischofia, Mallotus, Phyllanthus (Euphorbiaceae); Castanea (Fagaceae); Mammea (Guttiferae); Cinnamomum (Lauraceae); Careya (Lecythidaceae); Acacia, Albizia, Pithecellobium, Xylia (Leguminosae); Strychnos (Loganiaceae); Loranthus (Loranthaceae); Lagerstroemia, Woodfordia (Lythraceae); Sandoricum (Meliaceae); Ficus (Moraceae); Eugenia, Syzygium (Myrtaceae); Pyrus, Rosa (Rosaceae); Adina, Mussaenda (Rubiaceae); Salix (Salicaceae); Nephelium, Schleichera (Sapindaceae); Manilkara (Sapotaceae); Solanum (Solanaceae); Duabanga (Sonneratiaceae); Theobroma (Sterculiaceae); Camellia (Theaceae); Celtis, Trema (Ulmaceae); Gmelina (Verbenaceae).

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