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Thosea
lutea Heylaerts
Thosea lutea Heylaerts, 1890, Comp. rend. Soc. ent. Belg., 1890:
29.
Limacodes nubeculosa Snellen,
1892, Midden Sumatra, Reizen Veth 4 (8), lepidoptera, p. 30.
Thosea lutea Heylaerts; Hering, 1931: 714.
Thosea
lutea 
(mangrove)
Thosea
lutea
Thosea
lutea 
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Diagnosis. This species lacks the submarginal line of other Bornean Thosea, though
it is present in its undescribed Lesser Sunda sister species. Instead there are
diffuse darker brown bars postmedially and intermedially on the forewing dorsum.
The forewing is typically pale reddish brown but two smaller greyish specimens
have been taken in mangrove in Brunei. These specimens have the gnathus less
deep, more darkly sclerotised than in typical lutea and their status
needs further investigation.
Geographical range. Sundaland.
Habitat preference. The distinctive specimens from mangrove have already
been mentioned. The typical form has been taken infrequently in a range of
lowland forest types including swamp but on the Mulu survey it was found
virtually only in wet heath (kerangas) forest on a river terrace by the S.
Melinau.
Biology. Kalshoven (1981) described the larva. It is of typical form, light-green, with the lateral tubercles orange and the dorsal stripe yellow-green. In
Peninsular Malaysia the lateral scoli are only slightly yellowish at the tip,
and the dorsal white stripe is reduced to a small central lenticular spot (M.J.W.
Cock, photo). Host-plants recorded are Camellia; (tea; Theaceae), Coffea
(Rubiaceae) and Piper (Piperaceae).
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