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Netria
Walker
Netria viridescens Walker
Netria
viridescens Walker,
1855, List lepid. Insects in Colln Br. Mus. 6:
1504; Kiriakoff, 1968:
138;Holloway 1976: 56, Fig. 361.
Netria viridescens  |
Netria viridescens  |
Diagnosis. This large species is unmistakable in its green forewings with darker,
finely fasciated medial and basal bands. There is some variation in the green
tone (usually paler in the larger female) and the intensity of the banding.
Geographical range. Oriental tropics to New Guinea.
Habitat preference. On G. Kinabalu the species was taken infrequently on
the transect sampled to as high as 2600 m. In the Mulu survey it was infrequent
in lower and upper montane forest but more common in kerangas and lowland
limestone forest. It was common at 300 m in hill dipterocarp forest at Ulu
Temburong, Brunei.
Biology. The life history has been studied in the Indian Subregion (Moore 1882-4,
Lepid. Ceylon Vol II; Bell MS).
The egg, 2.7 mm by 1.4 mm, is a low dome with a closely pitted surface,
pale yellowish white.
The larva is a stout, rather elongate ovoid shape, narrower posteriorly
than anteriorly, bifid anally. The head is large, oval, shiny-granular, with
short hairs. The body is smooth, dull, green in colour with an orange-red
'collar'; a broadish dorsal
'pulsating' plum-coloured line runs the length
of the body from the collar, edged by equally broad whitish lines; there is a
ventrolateral white to yellow band below the spiracles. A series of yellow
diagonal lines occurs on each side, and the whole surface is invested with small
yellow dots, each bearing a hair. The tips of the anal points are pink. The
white spiracles are ringed outwards with black, blue-green and brown.
The larvae live on the undersides of the leaves of their host-plant,
feeding only on young leaves. Recorded host-plants are all in the family
Sapotaceae: Bassia, Mimusops, Sideroxylon (Bell MS); Achras sapota (CIE
records, India).
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