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“Aiteta” deminutiva Warren
Aiteta deminutiva Warren, 1916, Novit.
zool., 23: 221.
Aiteta deminutiva Warren; Kobes, 1997: 167.
Diagnosis. This is a very much smaller species than its congeners, the
forewings a dull olive brown, finely speckled with grey except where two fine,
irregular fasciae of pure ground colour cross. There is also a submarginal row
of black flecks that becomes more distant from the margin towards the apex.
Taxonomic note. The species is misplaced in Aiteta and is not even a
careine, lacking the tymbal organs of the group and the larval characters. It is
a nolid, having a saccular shield in the male genitalia, though the uncus is
represented by a pair of divergent socii flanking the anal tube, the valve has
an unusual flange more distally on the valve sacculus, and the aedeagus vesica
is extensively ornamented with short, robust spines. The female has narrow,
elongate ovipositor lobes, but the species is probably not a sarrothripine; it
lacks the signum typical of Aiteta, having just a distal patch of
scobination. No more satisfactory placement could be found.
Geographical range. Borneo, Sumatra, Sulawesi to Solomons.
Habitat preference. Seven specimens have been taken in recent surveys, six
from lowland dipterocarp and alluvial forests, and one from montane forest at
1618m on Bukit Retak, Brunei. Also, Chey (1994) collected several specimens in
his survey of plantation and secondary forests in the lowlands of Sabah, most
from a Pinus caribaea plantation.
Biology.
The larva was reared in the Solomons by Bigger (1988). He noted and illustrated
in a line drawing that it lacked the swollen thorax of congeners. The larvae fed
colonially under a web on the upper leaf surface of the large leaves of
Octomeles (Datiscaceae), more than one colony often occurring on the same
leaf.
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