Macroglossum corythus Walker
Macroglossa corythus Walker, 1856, List Specimens lepid. Insects Colln.
Br. Mus. 8: 92.
Macroglossa luteata Butler, 1875, Proc. zool. Soc. Lond., 1875: 241.
Macroglossum corythus Walker; Rothschild & Jordan, 1903; 661.
Diagnosis. The forewing is much more uniform than in other species except
the next two, crossed with weakly darker, sinuous fasciae. Distinction
from the next species is best done on genitalic characters as discussed
below.
Taxonomic notes. Most Oriental material is referable to ssp. luteata.
Geographical range. Indo-Australian tropics to New Caledonia; recorded
from the Cocos-Keeling Is. (Holloway, 1983).
Habitat preference. All three recent specimens have been taken in upper
montane forest (1500m+) on Bukit Retak and Bukit Pagon, all in Brunei.
Biology. The larva has been described by Bell & Scott (1937) and
Dupont & Roepke (1941). The latter refer only to one colour form,
bright green, speckled yellow, with a violet-bordered white dorsolateral
band, and bright yellow spots laterally on the thorax and anterior
abdominal segments, and white ones laterally on posterior abdominal
segments. The upcurved horn is green, granulated with yellow. Bell &
Scott refer to a shining, tubercular, saddle-shaped marking on T1, and to
chocolate brown and black variants, but no green form. The brown form from
Hong Kong is illustrated in above.
Recorded host-plants (Bell & Scott; Dupont & Roepke; Barlow, 1982;
Holloway, 1983; Miyata, 1983; Bascombe, in litt.) are: Strychnos
(Loganiaceae);
Guettarda, Morinda, Paederia (Rubiaceae).
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