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Arctornis marginata
Moore
comb. n.
Cobanilla
marginata Moore,
1883, Lep. Ceylon, 2:121.
Topomesa
discolor Hampson,
1896, Fauna Br. India, Moths, 4: 490.
Topomesa
lerwa Swinhoe,
1899, Ann. Mag. nat. Hist., (7), 3:111.
Cobanilla
phaedra Collenette,
1932, Novit. zool., 38: 81.
Cobanilla
marginata melinau Holloway,
1982: 228.
Arctornis marginata
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Arctornis marginata |
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Diagnosis. The wings are pale dull orange, with suffusion of reddish scales,
particularly at the fringes, in the discal spot and medially on the forewing.
Females are more heavily suffused medially and have the forewings strongly
bifalcate rather than merely falcate as in the male.
Taxonomic note. The species was reviewed by Holloway (1982b). The Bornean subspecies, melinau,
is distinguished by conspicuous setae at the apex of the valve harpe.
Geographical range. Sri Lanka, India; Peninsular Malaysia, S. Burma,
Sumatra (ssp. phaedra); Borneo (ssp. melinau).
Habitat preference. This is a scarce species, only taken in lowland
forest, including heath and swamp forest.
Biology. The early stages in India have been described by T.R.D. Bell (MS). The
head is orange. The setae on the verrucae are whitish and black, slightly
plumose. They are longer and more plumose on the thoracic segments, directed
forwards. Similarly long but less plumose setae are directed backwards from A8
and A9. Early instars are strongly variegated, but the mature larva is black,
marbled and netted with grey and white; there is a broken, rudimentary lateral
row of orange marks.
The larvae lie on the under-surface of the preferred younger leaves of
their host-plant. They rest with their bodies flexed laterally, and sometimes
spin a silken shelter in the leaves.
The pupa is grass-green, pitted with reddish brown, and lineated and
spotted with white. The secondary setae are sparse. The pupa is suspended by its
dark, rose-red cremaster in a cradle of fine, almost invisible silk threads.
Development from egg to adult takes four to five weeks.
The host-plant, as for A. rutila (See
Arctornis rutila Fabricius comb.n), was Diospyros (Ebenaceae).
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