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Avatha
noctuoides Guenée
Hypaetra
noctuoides Guenée, 1852, Hist. Nat. Insectes, Spec. gén. Lépid. 7: 259.
Athyrma
ptocha Prout, 1925, Ann. Mag. nat. Hist. (9), 16: 402, syn. n.
Avatha
noctuoides
(Assam) |
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Diagnosis. This species
could be mistaken for a form of discolor, but always has
an antemedial black area subdorsally that is associated with smaller black
flecks on the costa and never with a black hieroglyph postmedially. The
postmedial, when evident, is paler, and has a marked loop in its discal section
(see p. 14); the postmedial is often associated with a further faintly darker
fleck on the costa. The hindwing has some subtornal fasciation but lacks the
zone of paler marginal fringes seen at the apex of the hindwing in discolor.
Taxonomic
note. Avatha bipartita Wileman comb. n. (Taiwan) is
related.
Geographical
range. Java, Singapore, Borneo, Burma, Andamans, India,
Hainan.
Habitat
preference. One of the two Bornean specimens seen is just labelled ‘S.
Borneo’. Chey (1994) recorded a further specimen in a Eucalyptus plantation in
the lowlands of Sabah.
Biology. Bell (MS;
though one comment indicated that the species may be A. discolor or a mixture of
the two species, and all Bell voucher material located in BMNH appears to be of
discolor) stated the
general shape of the larva is as in Serrodes and has the same
resting posture. The prolegs on A3 are small, those on A4 slightly reduced. A1
is tumid, ridged transversely in the line of the spiracles. A8 is also tumid,
with a dorsolateral pair of tubercles. The head is yellowish with black spots.
The body is bluish grey with 15 longitudinal whitish lines from the dorsum to
the spiracles. The dorsum is more broadly greenish grey. There is a
black-ringed, bluish white spot behind each spiracle. The ridge of A1 is black
in front and behind, and yellow at the top, with a pink spot at each end near
the spiracle. That on A8 is marked with black and white. The ventral surface is
light green, with black spots between the true legs and between the prolegs of
A3 and A4. A second larva was more olive-chocolate in colour, lined with white,
and with a white semicircle dorsally and dorsolateral white arcs on A1. The
head of this second type of larva is marbled black and white.
The
young larvae rest along the ribs and veins of the undersides of leaves, but
take to stalks and twigs when larger. Pupation is in a loose cell of leaves
joined and lined with silk. The pupa has a greyish powdery bloom.
The
host plants given by Bell were Allophyllus and Schleichera in the
Sapindaceae. These were attributed to noctuoides by Robinson et al. (2001), who
added Lepisanthes from the same family, but they could, given the
confusion over the identification of the larvae, be attributable to discolor.
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