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Oxyodes
scrobiculata Fabricius
Noctua
scrobiculata Fabricius, 1775, Syst. Ent.:
592.
Noctua
vittata Fabricius, 1775, Syst Ent.:
600.
Phalaena
clytia Stoll, 1782, Uitlandsche Kapellen,
4: 238.
Oxyodes
ochreata Rothschild, [1915] 1916, Rep. B.O.U. Exp.,
2 (15): 61.
Oxyodes
ochreata samoana Tams, 1935, Insects Samoa, 3 (4): 229.
Oxyodes
ochreata tanymekes Tams, 1935, Insects Samoa, 3 (4): 229.
Oxyodes
ochreata novaehebridensis Viette, 1951, Annls Soc. ent. Fr.,
118: 48.
Oxyodes
scrobiculata Fabricius; Holloway, 1976: 40.
Oxyodes
scrobiculata obscurior Holloway, 1979: 511.
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Oxyodes
scrobiculata 
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Diagnosis.
The facies of the hindwing, with the broadly black costal zone, pale creamy fawn
basal zone and fawn border, is highly distinctive.
Geographical
range. Indo-Australian tropics east to Guam, Queensland, New Caledonia,
Fiji, Samoa and Tonga; see Holloway (1979) for discussion of more easterly
subspecies.
Habitat
preference. The species can be abundant in a variety of habitats up to
about 2000m, but is perhaps more characteristic of disturbed and cultivated
habitats than forest. Chey (1994) found it to be common in secondary forest and
softwood plantations in the lowlands of Sabah. It showed a preference for canopy
flight in the vicinity of the Danum Valley Field Centre (S.J. Willott data).
Biology.
The mature larva was described by Bell (MS) and illustrated by Kuroko &
Lewvanich (1993). The illustrated larva is slender, tapering slightly at each
end, the prolegs with expanded plantae giving them a T-shape. The abdominal
pairs are reduced slightly towards the anterior, and the anal ones are usually
held splayed out behind. The colour is a pale emerald green with fine, pale
yellow dorsolateral lines and three fainter, broken white ones ventral to these,
two above and one below the line of spiracles. Bell's description referred to a
dull orange head and a light watery green body with an orange tint. He also
noted a broad black dorsal line centred thinly with grey.
The
larvae can occur in such numbers as to cause serious defoliation of the host
trees, and they also feed on the flowers. Pupation is in a shelter formed by the
larva cutting out a sausage-shaped flap from one edge of a leaf and folding it
over the rest. The pupa has a sparse white powdery bloom (Bell).
The host
plants recorded (Robinson et al.,
2001) are Aglaia
(Meliaceae),
Dimocarpus,
Litchi
and
Nephelium
(Sapindaceae).
The
adult has been recorded as a fruit piercer in Thailand (Bänziger, 1982; Kuroko
& Lewvanich, 1993).
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