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Ophiusa
disjungens Walker
Ophiodes
disjungens Walker,
1858, List
Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus., 14: 1360.
Anua
disjungens ab. timorensis Strand,
1913, Arch.
Naturgesch., 79 (A7): 171.
Ophiusa
disjungens Walker;
Kobes, 1985: 35.
Minucia
indiscriminata Hampson, 1893, Illustr. typical Specimens Lepid. Het.
Colln. Br. Mus., 9: 111.
Anua
tongaensis Hampson, 1913, Cat. Lepid. Phal. Colln. Br. Mus., 12:
434.
Diagnosis.
This and the next species have similar, rather narrow, pale, biscuit-coloured
lightly marked forewings and yellow hindwings with a black submarginal patch. In
disjungens
the
postmedial is darker, punctate, as distinct from a slightly paler but obscure
and irregular fascia. Both species have grey patches distal to the submarginal:
the apical one is strongest in disjungens; in discriminans Walker there is a prominent grey ellipse
at the tornus. In discriminans the abdomen has a distinctive
subapical black patch dorsally. See also the description of the previous
species.
Geographical
range. Oriental tropics (ssp. indiscriminata);
Lesser Sundas, Australia, New Caledonia, vagrant to Norfolk I. (typical);
Vanuatu, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga (ssp. tongaensis). The species also occurs on Guam.
Habitat
preference. The only specimen noted in recent surveys was from 1618m on
Bukit Retak in Brunei.
Biology.
Hampson (1893) and Sugi (1987) illustrated the mature larva in colour. It is a
long, relatively slender and streamlined semi-looper that is variegated greyish
brown. The finer patterning is longitudinal banding but superimposed on this is
more oblique or transverse variegation that is coarser, blackish on A2, A3 and
A5, the latter with extensive white markings on each side that are more intense
on alternate longitudinal bands. A transverse ridge on A8 is edged darker
posteriorly. The whole effect is cryptic, twig-like. Semper (1896-1902)
illustrated a more reddish brown larva with black longitudinal striae.
The
host-plant recorded by Sugi was Psidium (Myrtaceae),
and Common (1990) and Robinson et al. (2001) added Eucalyptus
and
possibly other Myrtaceae; there is also a record of Styphelia (Epacridaceae)
from Guam (Swezey, cited by Holloway, 1979).
The
adult has been recorded as a fruit piercer in China (Wu, 1981) and Thailand (Bänziger,
1982).
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