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Archigargetta Kiriakoff
Archigargetta viridigrisea Hampson
comb. n.
Phalera viridigrisea Hampson,
1898, J. Bombay nat. Hist Soc. 11: 626.
One
Sikkim 
syntype located in BMNH is
hereby designated LECTOTYPE and so labelled.
Stauropus clothus Swinhoe, 1899, Ann. Mag. nat. Hist. (7), 3:
110.
Holotype
examined. Syn. n. This name was placed as a synonym of Kikuchiana
trichosticha
Hampson by Kiriakoff (1967), with wrong original genus and
pagination cited.
Pseudogargetta fuscicollis
Gaede,
1930: 618. Paratypes examined. Syn. n.
Roepkeella tornalis Kiriakoff,
1974: 380. Syn. n. The original illustration of the male genitalia
indicates
that this taxon is viridigrisea.
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Archigargetta viridigrisea 
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Diagnosis. The male is distinguished by its elongate, rather bluish grey fore-wings
with reddish patches and a curved antemedial consisting of two fine dark lines;
there are faint pale subapical markings. The female is larger, the forewings
broader and with a greenish grey ground colour rather than the deep almost
indigo of the male; the fasciation is more prominent.
Taxonomic notes. The genus Archigargetta Kiriakoff has been subject to much
confusion in the literature. As recognised here, it consists of two species, one
Oriental, one Melanesian. They are more or less identical in facies, each
somewhat variable and sexually dimorphic, yet readily separable on characters of
male genitalia. The Oriental species, viridigrisea Hampson, has male
genitalia as illustrated by Kiriakoff (1968: fig. 17) and Holloway (1976: fig.
355) and the Melanesian one, amydra Turner, has been illustrated by
Kiriakoff (1968: fig. 12). The major differences are in the uncus (long,
straight, tapering in viridigrisea, compared with short, spatulate, and
down-turned in amydra), valve (costa immaculate in viridigrisea but
with a heavy, variably shaped sclerotised process in amydra) and aedeagus
(short, stout with a large, globose, lobed vesica in viridigrisea but
slender, apically spined, with a small, elongate vesica in amydra). The
range of viridigrisea is given below. That of amydra is from
Queensland to New Guinea and New Britain; its synonymy is suggested to be as
follows:
Cascera
amydra Turner,
1903, Proc. Linn. Soc. New South Wales 28:
74.
Photograph of holotype examined.
Polychoa styphlopis ab.
albostigmata Rothschild, 1917, Novit. zool. 24: 256. Holotype
examined.
Treated as distinct species by Kiriakoff (1968). Syn.
n.
Pseudogargetta funebris Gaede,
1930: 618. Holotype examined. Placed in Polychoa by Kiriakoff
(1968). Syn.
n.
Archigargetta
cyclopea Kiriakoff,
1967: 38. Holotype examined. Syn. n.
Archigargetta
diakonoffi Kiriakoff,
1967, Zool. Meded. Leiden. 42:191.
Syn. n.
The male genitalia of cyclopea and diakonoffi, both from
islands off New Guinea, are slightly different from those of mainland specimens,
and the latter, based on a single male, has a broad rufous medial band to the
forewing; it is suggested here that these differences, if constant, are of
subspecific rather than specific quality.
The combination of these two species in the same genus means that Roepkeella
Kiriakoff (1968: 40; type sp. fuscicollis Gaede) becomes a junior
subjective synonym of Archigargetta Kiriakoff (1967: 38; type sp. cyclopea
Kiriakoff), syn. n.
Geographical range (viridigrisea). Indian
Subregion, Sundaland, Sulawesi.
Habitat preference. The
species is infrequent in lowland dipterocarp forest but has been taken singly
in upper montane forest at 1930 m on G. Kinabalu.
Biology. The species has been reared in S. India. (Bell MS).
The larva is cylindrical, somewhat spindle-shaped, the head rather large and the
anal end rounded; the body is somewhat flattened. The claspers are stretched out
behind, divergent. The head is more or less semicircular, the face convex,
glabrous, the colour green with lateral red stripes. The body is glossy,
glabrous, an oily light green with a supraspiracular yellow band, red-tinged on
the first two thoracic segments; there is a black-rimmed and divided circle on
abdominal segment 8 dorsally; a bluish tinge affects the body below the yellow
band but the legs and prolegs are green.
The larva rests stretched out on the undersides of
leaves with the head flexed to one side. It pupates in a cell made from a leaf
folded and loosely fastened.
The Indian host-plant is Careya arborea, a
tree in the Myrtaceae.
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