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Bombyx
incomposita van Eecke
Theophila incomposita van Eecke, 1929, Zool. Meded. Leiden, 12: 65.
Theophila religiosae Helfer, sensu Holloway, 1976: 85.
Theophila
huttoni Westwood, sensu Holloway, 1982: 189.
Diagnosis. The grey falcate forewings with a black apical zone and fine,
evenly curved fasciae are distinctive.
Taxonomic
notes. Further dissection of Bombyx species has indicated that Sundanian
material should be treated as distinct from Himalayan huttoni. The species is
externally similar to huttoni, though specimens of the latter from the N.W.
Himalaya have a double forewing postmedial, but the genitalia are relatively
larger and more elongate.
In Java there flies B. horsfieldi Moore, with much more irregular fasciation. It
has recently been recorded from Taiwan (Kishida, 1984, Japan Heterocerist's J.,
127:23). In Sulawesi there is an undescribed species with both wings relatively
much narrower, the hindwing tornus produced, acute.
Geographical range. Sumatra, Peninsular Malaysia, Borneo.
Habitat
preference. The species is rare, taken in lowland rainforest in Brunei and at
1200m on G. Kinabalu.
Biology. Specimens of the larvae of the related T. huttoni are preserved blown
in the BMNH. The thoracic segments are swollen almost into a sphere, and the
abdomen is more or less cylindrical. The skin is pale yellow with a variegated
mottling of dark purplish brown. This is weak over the thorax and in a broad
dorsolateral band on each side of the abdomen so that there appear to be dark
dorsal and lateral bands. In the former each abdominal segment from 1 to 7 bears
a pair of small, slender dark horns. There is a single central larger one on A8
and a much smaller pair on A9.
The eggs are laid on the twigs of the host-plant in large groups but not
touching each other.
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