|
Erebus
macrops
Linnaeus
Noctua macrops
Linnaeus,
1768,
Syst. Nat.,
12 (3) App.: 225.
Noctua bubo
Fabricius,
1781,
Species
Insectorum, 2: 209.
Patula boopis
Guenée,
1852,
Hist. Nat.
Insectes, Spec. gén. Lépid.
7:
178.
Eupatula macrops
Linnaeus;
Holloway, 1976: 29; Kobes, 1985: 27.
|
Erebus
macrops  |
|
 |
Diagnosis.
The ocellate mark of the forewing is very large and is surrounded distally by
three concentric dark areas, including the inner surrounding ring. The fasciae
are more conspicuous, irregularly linear towards the base but more blotchy
chevron-like distally.
Geographical range.
Indian
Subregion, W. China, Burma, Thailand, Sumatra, Borneo.
Habitat preference.
Only one Bornean specimen has been seen, from 1930m on G. Kinabalu.
Biology.
Bell (MS) described the larva as a semi-looper, ophiusine in shape, fattest
centrally, with only the prolegs on A3 reduced to half size. A8 is humped
towards the posterior, with a prominent pair of tubercles set apart and having
rounded apices. Segments A1 and A2 are extended relative to the rest. The body
is smooth, the primary setae arising from black dots. It is rufous brown,
marbled finely all over with greyish white. A yellow dorsal band is marbled
finely brown, and there is a similar, double lateral line. Generally, T1 to A2
and A8 to A10 appear rufous, the intervening section being more greyish apart
from a rufous spiracular zone on A5. T3, or possibly the anterior of A1, as
another larva is described with it there, has a large subdorsal ocellus on each
side, rufous brown, darkening to the centre and edged by a fine, wavy white
line, with a finer black line outside that. The ventral surface is yellowish
with brown dots, and there are large black patches between the prolegs on A4 and
A5. Another larva was described as smutty blackish with a reticulation of light
yellow-brown, yellow or grey lines.
The larva retires to the thickest part of the host shrub during
the day, emerging to feed at dusk. Pupation is in a fairly close-fitting cell of
green leaves lined with silk, usually in the host shrub. The pupa lacks a
powdery bloom.
The adult rests on shaded tree trunks on rock faces during the
day, with the wings held flat. The costa of the forewing is at more than
right-angles to the abdomen. The moth enters dwellings on occasions but rarely
comes to light and infrequently to sugar.
The host plant is
Acacia
(Leguminosae).
The adult has been recorded as a fruit piercer in Thailand (Bänziger,
1982; Kuroko & Lewvanich, 1993).
<<Back
>>Forward <<Return to Content Page
|
