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Dilophothripa
alopha
Hampson
Dilophothripa alopha Hampson, 1907, J. Bombay nat. Hist. Soc., 17:
654.
Diagnosis. The forewing is shades of dull, almost greyish brown with
transverse fasciation paler but delineated finely more darkly on each side. The
costal zone becomes sharply dark brown just distal to the antemedial, this dark
zone tapering and fading along the costa towards the apex.
Geographical range. Burma, Peninsular Malaysia, Borneo, New Guinea, Rook I.
Habitat preference. The species is frequent in lowland forest, particularly
that on limestone, with some specimens being taken up to 900m on that substrate
during the Mulu survey.
Biology. Bell (MS) reared the related species brachytorna Hampson in
India. The larva is cylindrical, narrowing only slightly at each end. The
surface is smooth, dull, a darkish green with a very dark green dorsal line, and
lighter green prolegs and true legs. Only primary setae are present.
Pupation is in a close-fitting, semiovoid, green-white cocoon, peaked anteriorly
and with two tails of silk extending from the tapering posterior end seen also
in Lophothripa
Hampson. The pupa is ovoid, broadly rounded at each end, segment A10
with a beaded anterior margin. There are no data on sound production.
The larva lives between two leaves held together with silk, moving backwards and
forwards within this concealment like a pyralid. It feeds on the pendulous young
leaves of Saraca (Leguminosae). Bell also noted Buchanania
(Anacardiaceae), Terminalia (Combretaceae) and Calophyllum
(Guttiferae) as hosts (Robinson et al., 2001), and the related D.
lobata has been recorded from Cynometra (Leguminosae).
D. alopha has been reared from Saraca in Peninsular Malaysia by
W.A. Nässig.
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