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SUBFAMILY
PANTHEINAE |
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Belciana striatovirens Moore (Plate 1, Figs 29, 30) Donda striatovirens Moore, 1883, Proc.
zool. Soc. Lond., 1883: 23. Diagnosis. The species resembles most closely Belciana prasina Swinhoe (see above) but is much larger, the forewing a darker green and marked somewhat more extensively in black and brown. The hindwings differ from typical Donda (thoracica Moore is an exception) in being entirely brown. Taxonomic note. The facies, as mentioned above, is atypical of Donda, more as in some Belciana, and was the principal reason for the transference of this species to Belciana by Kobes (1992). The male abdomen has the eighth segment similar to that of typical species but with a more definite lacuna in the corematous area of the sternite and a saccus‑like termination to the anterior of the tergite. The genitalia show features intermediate between Donda and Belciana, with a peniculus and aedeagus more as in the former, and valves resembling those of B. kala Prout in the latter, particularly in the shape and the extensive setation. The female has the ostium associated with the eighth segment in a manner very similar to that in typical Belciana. The ductus and corpus bursae are also similar but much larger. The material reared by Bell (MS) from southern India is smaller than that from elsewhere in the range. Geographical range. India, Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Bali, Borneo. Habitat preference. Only three specimens have been taken in recent surveys: one to light on a boat amid mangrove in the Bay of Brunei; one from 300m in lowland forest of the Ulu Temburong, Brunei; one from dipterocarp forest at 250m on the lower slopes of G. Api in Sarawak. Biology. Bell (MS) described the larva and compared it with the type species, it being the same cylindrical shape, yellow, set with long, stiff, black, yellow‑based, white‑tipped hairs (almost bristles) on conical tubercles. The dorsal tubercles of A2 are crimson. There is a double, black line running laterally above the spiracles. The head is large, light yellow. All prolegs are present. The larvae live on the undersides of mostly mature leaves, but appear to prefer seedling plants in the forest understorey. The larva turns bright red, dorsally black, the tubercles blue, prior to pupation, moving rapidly over the soil surface. Pupation is in an ovoid silken cocoon that incorporates detritus. The host plant is Pterospermum (Sterculiaceae). |
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