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Cania
bandura Moore
Parasa bandura Moore, in Horsfield & Moore, 1859: 417.
Nyssia malaccana Walker, 1865, List Specimens lepid. Insects
Colln Br.
Mus. 32: 481, syn. n. (Hering, 1931, sank to bilinea Walker).
Cania bandura Moore; Hering, 1931: 678, Holloway, 1976: 90,
Barlow, 1982: 38.
Cania bilinea Walker; sensu Holloway, 1976: 90.
Cania
bandura 
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Cania
bandura  |
Diagnosis. The male can only be confused with that of the next species and is
distinguished in the description thereof. The female (if correctly associated)
is larger than the male, resembling a large member of the bilinea group
but with the transverse fasciae somewhat finer and more oblique, the postmedial
extending approximately to the apex.
Taxonomic note. A distinct race occurs in the N.E. Himalaya and Burma. It is associated
with typical bandura because of the development of the aedeagus into a
fine needle-like form, but has the valve apex considerably produced, tapering to
an acute apex. This is hereby described as C. bandura acutivalva ssp.
n.
Holotype.
BURMA, Rangoon, 1922, Archbold. Coll., BM 1926-391, BM limacodid slide 672.
Geographical range. Sundaland, S. Thailand; N.E. Himalaya, Burma.
Habitat preference. The species occurs infrequently in a wide range of
lowland forest types and extends up into the lower montane zone at around 1000m,
where it could have its greatest frequency.
Biology. There are no larval descriptions in the literature that can be
attributed with confidence to this species. References to C. sericea for
Java in Piepers & Snellen (1900) are probably attributable to the
undescribed relative of striola; the larva was stated to be easily
confused with that of striola.
Illustrations in the Malaysian Department of Agriculture of two
different larvae have been attributed to bandura. One set of
illustrations is probably of robusta in the bilinea group: a
rather flattened, woodlouse-shaped larva with scoli as in the bilinea group.
It is pale bluish green with a narrow dorsal white stripe. The other has been
described in the generic introduction as having a ‘face and shoulder’
pattern, and is probably bandura. The situation will be clarified further
by Cock, Godfray & Holloway (in press).
A host-plant in Borneo is probably Diospyros discolor (Ebenaceae)
(unpublished CIE record, attributed to bilinea).
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