|
SUBFAMILY
EUSTROTIINAE |
|
Maliattha signifera Walker (Plate 3, Figs 104, 111) Acontia
signifera Walker, [1858] 1857, List
Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Diagnosis. This and the next species, ritsemae Snellen, are similar in having a broad, dull, brownish medial band crossing the whitish forewing, with the bipunctate discal mark just distal to it. In signifera the band is slightly curved and oblique, with irregular edges, whereas in ritsemae it is much straighter, transverse and uniform, though tapering slightly to the costa. There is a small greyish bilobed mark in ritsemae distal to the discal one that intrudes, white-edged, into the brown border, this border also being more extensive and uniform than in signifera. Taxonomic note. Edwards in Nielsen et al. (1996: 376) resolved confusion in the homonymy of the name Acontia signifera Walker within Maliattha. Geographical range. Indo-Australian tropics to Australia and Solomons. Habitat preference. Two specimens were taken at 70m in an area of secondary alluvial forest with disturbance near the foot of G. Mulu. Another was taken in forest at Barito Ulu in the lowlands of Kalimantan. One was taken on a canopy platform in lowland forest near the Danum Valley Field Centre in Sabah. There is older material from Labuan I. Chey (1994) recorded five individuals in softwood plantations and secondary forest near Brumas in the lowlands of Sabah. Biology. The larva was described by Gardner (1947). It lacks the first two pairs of prolegs. It is pale green, with paler spiracles. Pupation is in a thin cocoon of silk and soil. Robinson et al. (2001) listed Oryza and grasses (Gramineae) as larval hosts. |
Copyright © Southdene Sdn. Bhd. All rights reserved.