|
Clostera restitura
Walker
Ichthyura
restitura
Walker, 1865, List specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus. 32: 433.
Clostera
restitura
Walker; Kiriakoff, 1968: 253; Holloway 1976: 58, fig. 382.
|
Clostera restitura
|
Diagnosis. The forewings are medium brown, uniform but for slightly darker shading
and fine, paler fasciae. The valves of the male genitalia have the ventral
margin sclerotised and produced into a downcurved spine.
Taxonomic note. The species is part of a natural group having several unique
modifications of the genitalia (such as the ventral spine of the valve mentioned
above); it includes the Palaearctic C. anastomosis Linnaeus, the New
Guinea species C. rubida Druce, and representatives in Sulawesi and
Queensland.
Geographical range. Oriental tropics to Sundaland.
Habitat preference. Only one Bornean specimen has been seen, a male taken
at light in a bamboo grove at 1000 m in the valley below Bundu Tuhan on G.
Kinabalu (Holloway 1976).
Biology. The species has been reared in Hong-Kong by M. J. Bascombe and the
following notes are based on his colour photographs and observations. Additional
information on the species in India was gleaned from Gardner (1943) and Bell
(MS).
The eggs are laid in small clusters and are spherical, pale green with
three broad, rich brown bands across the upper hemisphere, one centrally, the
other two subdorsally, bracketing the central one.
The larvae are initially gregarious, reddish with a fine dorsal red line
and general pale yellow reticulation; the dorsal line is edged by broad,
mottled, whitish bands. The head and the tubercles associated with the dorsal
processes are black; the dorsal processes tend to be bifid, with a central
orange patch. There are white pimples sparsely on each segment which become less
prominent in later instars.
In later instars the larvae become less gregarious, lying camouflaged
along stalks and twigs. The mature larva is grey with paler grey and rufous
scribbling all over. The head is grey, freckled with black. The hairs are fine,
straw-coloured, short except for long ones in a latero-ventral fringe. The white
pimples are more frequent dorsally, with black flecking in the surrounding area.
The major dorsal protuberances have a greater concentration of black flecks, as
does the margin of the slightly darker grey fine dorsal line. The protuberances
are broadly dull orange on their posterior face. The anterior protuberance is
associated with more prominent, black-flecked lateral tubercles.
The larva of anastomosis in Japan was illustrated by Issiki
(1969). It is dull red with a blackish dorsal band bordered with yellow and
containing a pair of white spots on each segment.
Pupation is in a loose silken cocoon spun between leaves. Bascombe
recorded four instars, the larval stage lasting only 11 days and the time in the
pupa being not much more than a week. Mating and oviposition took place within
two days of emergence and the eggs hatched after five days, therefore the
minimum period for the life cycle is about 25 days.
The Hong-Kong
host-plant was Salix, also recorded with Populus, both Salicaceae,
in India (Browne 1968). Indian hosts in the Flacourtiaceae are Flacourtia (Bell
MS) and Casearia (Gardner 1943), and Sevastopulo (1940) listed an old
record from Elaeocarpus (Elaeocarpaceae). In Sumatra and Java the hosts
are Flacourtiaceae (Kalshoven 1981). The related New Guinea species, rubida, has
been reared from Terminalia (Combretaceae) (CIE records).
<<
Back >>Forward
<<Return to Contents page
|
