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Westermannia argentea Hampson
Westermannia argentea Hampson, 1891, Illust. typical Specimens lepid. Heterocera Colln Br. Mus., 8: 80.
Westermannia argentea Hampson; Holloway, 1976: 28; Kobes, 1997: 61.
Diagnosis. See W. superba above.
Geographical range. Indian Subregion, Peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra, Borneo,
S. Moluccas.
Habitat preference. Most material taken in
recent surveys is montane, from 1000m on G. Mulu, 1618m on Bukit Retak and 1620m
on G. Kinabalu. However, one specimen was taken at 300m in lowland forest in the
Ulu Temburong of Brunei.
Biology. The larva and pupa in India were described by Bell (MS). The larva
is cylindrical, slightly fatter centrally. All prolegs are present. The head is
pale green, bluish over the lower part, with a broad yellow band from the eyes
to the vertex of each lobe that is continuous with the dorsolateral line of the
body. The body surface is dull, with primary setae only present. The colour is
grass green with a narrow, canary yellow, dorsolateral, longitudinal band. Each
of the setae arises from a yellow dot.
The pupa is claviform, broadly rounded anteriorly; posteriorly it is narrower,
broadly blunt with a beading of teeth between A9 and A10. Pupation is in a
close-fitting semiovoid cocoon on bark or rotten wood, finely lined with silk
and incorporating broken or chewed bark or wood.
The larvae lie fully stretched on the undersides of young leaves of the
host-plant, Terminalia spp. (Combretaceae).
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