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Thyas
coronata Fabricius comb. n.
Noctua
coronata Fabricius, 1775, Syst. Ent.:
596.
Noctua
leonina Fabricius, 1775, Syst. Ent.:
596.
Noctua
ancilla Fabricius, 1794, Ent. Syst. III,
2: 17.
Corycia
magica Hübner, 1827, Zuträge Samml. exot. Schmett.,
3: 32.
Ophiodes
ponderosa Mabille, 1879, Annls Soc. ent. Fr.,
(5) 9: 346.
Anua
coronata Fabricius; Holloway, 1976: 2.
Ophiusa
coronata Fabricius; Kobes, 1985: 36.
Diagnosis.
The facies of this large species is unmistakable, particularly the yellow
hindwings with two black bands and the black tinged yellow abdomen. The forewing
reniform can be black or obscure.
Taxonomic
note. The species is transferred to Thyas
because
it shares the diagnostic facies features, such as the variable reniform, and has
the larval characters that Thyas shares with Artena.
An Australasian relative of coronata, hituensis Pagenstecher
(Holloway, 1979) should also be transferred to Thyas,
comb.
n.
Geographical
range. Indo-Australian tropics to Micronesia and the Society Is.
Habitat
preference. Records are infrequent, and the species may not come readily to
light, but they are from forests, disturbed habitats and offshore islands (Karaman
Is.) in the lowlands up to 2600m, where eight specimens came to light, possibly
hill-topping, as the species is a known migrant.
Biology.
The larva was described by Bell (MS), Gardner (1941, 1947) and Sevastopulo
(1939a), and described and illustrated by Bigger (1988). The young larvae are
green with black spots, slender. The mature larva is also of typical slender
ophiusine shape with the head prognathous. Head and body are striped
longitudinally. The stripes are alternate pale fawn and darker purplish fawn,
(these are relatively broader on the head), separated by fine darker brown
lines. There is a sequence of three of the darker stripes on each side, and a
thinner dorsal one that is expanded into ellipses on A5 and A6. The dorsolateral
stripes contain a pair of small, pale yellow tubercles on A8. The prolegs of A3
and, to a lesser extent, A4 are reduced. These features are identical to those
of the larva of T.
juno illustrated
in Sugi (1987), particularly the dorsal ellipses; see above.
The eggs
are laid in a group on the bark of a branch. Bigger gave details of the length
of the life stages, the whole cycle lasting 51-57 days.
The
host-plants (Robinson et al., 2001) are Combretum, Quisqualis,
Terminalia
(Combretaceae),
Litsea
(Lauraceae),
Anamirta
(Menispermaceae),
Pinus
(Pinaceae),
Nephelium
(Sapindaceae).
Bigger (1988) only recorded it from Terminalia.
The
adult is a well-known piercer of fruit (Wu, 1981; Bänziger, 1982; Kuroko &
Lewvanich, 1993).
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