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Perixera
illepidaria Guenée comb. n.
Anisodes illepidaria Guenée,
1857, Hist. nat. Insectes, Spec. Gen. Lep. 9: 421.
Anisodes semicompleta Walker,
1861, List Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus., 22: 651.
Anisodes immemoria Walker,
1866, Ibid., 35: 1618.
Anisodes strictaria Snellen,
1881, Tijdschr. Ent., 24: 81.
Diagnosis. This is a small pinkish fawn species like many of those just described,
but the male has a shallow fold at the centre of the forewing costa, with a tuft
of scales over the discal spot in the upperside and lateral grey edging to the
fold in the underside. The rather uniformly pinkish females have the hindwing
discal spot rather lenticular, and the black streak on the postmedials on M2 is
not particularly broad.
Taxonomic notes. The species typifies Emmesura and belongs to a group that also
includes the type species of Stibarostoma and Xenoprora. Coremata
are absent from the fourth sternite but sometimes present between segment 8 and
the genitalia. The aedeagus apex is often convolute. The valves have a broad
costal lobe and are bilaterally asymmetric in some taxa. The uncus is weak,
sometimes broadly bifid.
Geographical range. N.E. Himalaya, Hong Kong, Sundaland, Philippines,
Sulawesi, Guam.
Habitat preference. The species has been recorded infrequently from the
lowlands to the upper montane zone at 1790m (on G. Mulu).
Biology. The larva feeds on the flowers and young foliage of mango (Mangifera,
Anacardiaceae) in Guam (Schreiner & Nafus, 1992). Oviposition is mostly
in spider webs near new foliage, the webs being either old, uninhabited, or
small, inhabited by juvenile spiders (Nafus & Schreiner, 1991). This was
shown to be a significant defence against predation, particularly by ants. Nafus
& Schreiner observed this habit also in three noctuids occurring on Guam
(one euteliine and two catocalines), hence it may be behaviour that will prove
to be more widely distributed in the Lepidoptera.
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