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SUBFAMILY
ACONTIINAE |
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Acontia wallaceana Hacker, Legrain & Fibiger (Plate 2, Figs 91, 92) Acontia wallaceana Hacker, Legrain & Fibiger, 2008: 272. Diagnosis. The forewing facies has the basal two thirds with a pale, bone‑coloured ground with diffuse greenish ochre fasciae that are angled subcostally. There are greyish reniform and orbicular stigmata within this area. There is a broad slaty grey and black area distal to this, bordered obliquely with the basal area and obtusely stepped around the reniform. The dark area grades to greenish ochre at the margin, with several black marginal dots subcostally and one subdorsally, with the fringes darker at these places. The hindwings are pale, grading brownish at the margin and with the veins also picked out in brown. Taxonomic note. This species replaces A. marmoralis Fabricius (Indian Subregion to Thailand, Indochina, S. China, Taiwan and the Ryukyu Is.) in Sundaland and eastwards. The facies of the two species is very similar, but wallaceana has the dark postmedial area of the forewing more strongly developed, and the stigmata and more basal markings are also generally more prominent. The hindwing of the females is generally darker than in marmoralis. In the male genitalia the subapical spur to the right valve costa is smaller but more broadly based; the aedeagus vesica lacks the basal cornutus of marmoralis but has the more distal clusters of spines strongly developed. In the female genitalia the membranous part of the bursa copulatrix distal to the central zone of scobination is usually much shorter than in marmoralis though this is not evident in the Javan female illustrated here (see comments under olivacea above on the potential for stretching during mating). Geographical range. Lombok, Java, Sumatra, Borneo, Sumbawa (material in BMNH). Habitat preference. The only Bornean specimen seen is from Pulo Laut, a low‑lying island to the south-east of Borneo. Biology. Bell (MS) reared marmoralis in India. The larva is cylindrical, widest over T2 and T3. A8 has a transverse tumidity dorsally that bears two small tubercles. Prolegs on A3 and A4 are absent. The head is black, spotted with yellow and red. The primary setae are black, set on small black chalazae on the light olive green body that also has a slight yellowish tinge and is spotted with yellow, particularly in the spiracular region. The spiracles are black, set on the anterior face of a tumidity that is set slightly below each and bears an orange-red patch; the tubercles on A8 are the same colour. The larva usually rests highly looped like a capital letter omega on the undersides of the mature leaves of the host plant, in which it eats untidy holes, leaving the veins. It drops on a silken thread if disturbed. Pupation is in a silken cell near the surface of the soil, the silk made firm by the inclusion of soil particles. Bell and Robinson et al. (2001) recorded Gossypium and Sida (Malvaceae) as larval host plants. |
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