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Acronicta
pruinosa Guenee
Acronycta
pruinosa Guenee, 1852, Hist. nat. Insectes, Spec. gen. Lepid., 5:53.
Polio soluta Walker,
1865, List Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus., 33: 723.
Acronycta
consanguis Butler, 1879,Ann. Mag. nat. Hist. (5), 4: 358.
Acronycta albiorbis Hampson, 1909, Cat. Lepid. Phalaenae Br. Mus., 8: 74, syn. n.
Acronycta
crenulata Bethune-Baker, 1906, Novit. Zool,13: 198, syn. n.
Acronicta pruinosa Guenee; Holloway, 1976: 13; Barlow, 1982: 86.
Diagnosis.
This species
may be distinguished from the next and Craniophora species by the very
reduced black basal and subtornal streaks, and the prominent pale orbicular
stigma on the forewing. The postmedial and antemedial are also distinctively
pale, edged finely with black.
Taxonomic
notes. There
is some variation in the male genitalia. A specimen from Kulu (N.W. Himalaya)
has a much shorter aedeagus vesica, narrower valves and longer harpe (slide
14122). The valve in crenulata is somewhat shorter, the harpe more
strongly flexed over the basal section (illustrated here; Bornean genitalia
featured in Holloway (1976)). The genitalia of albiorbis from Sri Lanka
are as in Bornean males but the valve is slightly shorter and narrower.
Geographical
range. Sri
Lanka, Himalaya, east to Japan, and Taiwan south to Burma and Peninsular
Malaysia, Borneo, Java (t. loc. of pruinosa), New Guinea.
Habitat
preference. A
single Bornean specimen has been taken, at 1200m (Bundu Tuhan) on G. Kinabalu
in a cultivated area with extensive forest remnants nearby.
Biology.
The larva
was described by Gardner (1941). It is yellow with black spots. Abdominal
segment 1 has a median dorsal rounded protuberance close covered apically with
short black hairs. A2-A8 each bear three longitudinal black spots, the posterior
one in A8 larger on a raised globular swelling. Primary setae are borne on
chalazae except for a multisetose verruca sublaterally on all segments; short
fine, white secondary setae are numerous. The head and prothoracic shield are
brown.
The
host-plant was Elaeagnus (Elaeagnaceae).
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