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Mythimna
(Acantholeucania) yu Guenee
Leucania yu Guenee, 1852, Hist. nat. Insectes, Spec. gen. Lepid., 5:
78.
Leucania exempta Walker, 1857, List Specimens lepid. Insects Colln. Br.
Mus., 11: 710.
Leucania costalis Moore, 1877, Proc. zool. Soc. Lond., 1877: 603.
Leucania yu Guenee; Calora, 1966: 657; Holloway, 1976: 9.
Diagnosis.
The forewing is rather unusually patterned with a narrow, triangular, pale wedge
over the cell, edged with dark brown distally and posteriorly that diffuses away
towards the margin. The antemedial and postmedial fasciae are more entire, less
regular in course, though crenulate, than in other Mythimna; the antemedial is
associated with a strong brown spot, possibly the orbicular, in the cell.
Geographical
range. Oriental
tropics east to Fiji and Tonga; absent from New Caledonia.
Habitat
preference. On G. Kinabalu the species was noted in small numbers in
cultivated areas at 1050m and 1200m. In Brunei singletons have been taken in
swamp forest at Daerah Belait and on the coast at Seria.
Biology. The
larva of the Javan population was described by Piepers & Snellen (1906). It
is smooth, green, or yellowish, ochreous or pale red when young, becoming brown
marked with yellow or red when older. There are faint longitudinal bands and
small white spots, whilst the venter is marked by a white or yellow band.
Sevastopulo (1944, 1945) described similar larvae from India, giving the colour
of the mature larva as olive-brown. He described the strong subspiracular white
stripe and indicated that the dorsal and subdorsal stripes become fainter
through the instars, almost disappearing in the fully grown final instar.
The larva feeds on
grasses (e. g. Paspalum) and has also been recorded from Saccharum (Piepers
& Snellen; Robinson, 1975).
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