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Lasiolopha
saturata
Walker
Areola saturata Walker, 1865, List Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus.,
33: 774.
Paracrama
olivacea
Hampson, 1893, Illust. typical Specimens lepid. Heterocera Colln Br. Mus., 9: 87.
Lasiolopha saturata Walker; Kobes, 1997: 32.
Diagnosis. The dark green forewings with finely paler fasciation and paler
green basal and broadly apical zones are diagnostic. The hindwings are dark
grey-brown.
Geographical range. Oriental tropics to New Guinea and Queensland.
Habitat preference. The species is rare but occurs in forests from the
lowlands to about 1800m.
Biology. Bell (MS) described the life history in India. The larva has
segments T1-3 swollen, berry-like, with abdominal segments decreasing in width
posteriorly. All prolegs are fully developed. Primary setae only are present,
short, erect, dark, sharp. The head is light orange, marked with black. The body
is dark grass green above a broad whitish subspiracular band that extends into
the spiracular region, where it is tinged yellow, to be limited by a
supraspiracular white line. Above this there are indistinct whitish lateral and
dorsolateral lines over the abdominal segments, and whitish edging to a dark,
pulsating dorsal line. All lines are indistinct on the thoracic tumidity. The
anterior of A1 and all of A10 are tinged pink.
The pupa is enclosed in a cocoon woven at the base of the midrib on a leaf on
the upperside and extending along it. The cocoon is a long semiovoid, the front
end slightly rounded, produced into a very long dorsal process projecting at 45
degrees over the perpendicular front. The pupa is ovoid with segment A10 broadly
truncated and conical.
The larva sits on the leaf upperside along the midrib in the ‘cocoon’ position,
or rests on stems or twigs. It eats only young, fresh, tender leaves.
The host-plant is Memecylon (Melastomataceae).
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