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Gastropacha
leopoldi Tams
Gastropacha pardale leopoldi Tams, 1935: 49; Holloway, 1976: 90;
Lajonquière, 1976: 167.
Gastropacha leopoldi Tams; Lajonquière, 1977a.
Diagnosis. The oval shape of both wings with the reticulated pale patch on
the hindwing renders this species unmistakable, though the latter feature
is obscure in the paler, more uniform female.
Taxonomic
notes. Lajonquière (1977a) showed that G. pardale Walker as treated by
Tams (1935) is in fact a complex of species. So far only one has been
recorded from Borneo.
Geographical range. Borneo, Sumatra.
Habitat preference. The species is found, never commonly, in forested
localities from the lowlands to about 1800m.
Biology. The larva of the related species pardale Walker has been recorded
as feeding on Enterolobium (Leguminosae) in Brunei (CIE records) and on
Baccaurea (Euphorbiaceae) and Pithecellobium (Leguminosae) in Thailand
(Pholboon
1965). Bascombe (in litt.) reared it from Aporusa (Euphorbiaceae) in Hong
Kong; the head and thorax are shown in above.
Sevastopulo (1946) reared the larva in India on Carissa (Apocynaceae). The
egg is a slightly flattened ovoid, chalky white with an olive-brown spot
at the micropyle and the opposite end and a diffuse ringed blotch in the
same colour on the side. Early instars are dark grey with transverse dark
bands dorsally on T2 and T3. The abdominal segments have subdorsal black
spots edged with orange above; there are lateral lappets and dorsal tufts
of black hair. The subdorsal abdominal spots change to a quadrilateral
array of orange spots with age, the transverse band on T2 develops an
anterior orange fringe and that on T3 becomes a transverse blue band with
a black spot at each end (all black in the final instar). Segment A8 has a
double dorsal wart, orange with buff bristles. The mature larva is
brownish grey speckled with black; the lappets are tufted buff, the
thoracic ones with longer hair and that on T1 double.
Pupation is in a longish, pale, cylindrical cocoon with blunt ends and
impregnated with a chalky substance. This last also covers the smooth,
pale olive brown pupa.
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