Agathia Guenée

Type species: lycaenaria Kollar, India.

Synonyms: Hypagathia Inoue (type species carissima Butler, Japan); Lophochiora Warren (type species cristifera Walker).

Agathia is a diverse genus of bright green species with strong markings in brown or blackish. These markings are typically clearly defined, narrow, transverse bands that divide the bright green area of the wings into a series of blocks and marginal islands. In subgenus Lophochlora Warren (A. vicinaonwards in the account of the species following) the bands are more irregular, the dark markings more diffuse: diffuse banding is also seen in A. obsoleta Warren, A. codina Swinhoe, A. gigantea Butler and allied species.

The male antennae are filiform, lacking cilia. Most of the species with typical pattern (laetata Fabricius and eromenoides sp. n. are exceptions) have a fovea at the base of the male forewing cell that is covered on the underside by a flap of scales arising from the cubital vein.

The male abdomen has a pair of setal patches on the third sternite. In subgenus Lophochlora the setae are larger, less clumped, and occur more sparsely also between the main patches (Fig 239 compared with Fig 243). The genitalia have the uncus reduced: the socii are strong, adjacent, parallel. There are prominent coremata from the valve bases, and the vinculum is typically cruciform. The valves are characterised by a variety of processes from the sclerotised costa, and a sacculus that terminates in an angle at the centre of the ventral margin. Some sclerotisation may occur beyond this angle, often a longitudinal band that protrudes as a spur beyond the apex of the valve.

In the female genitalia the ovipositor lobes are of the modified geometrine type, and there is a bicornute signum in the bursa.

The larva is typically robust, green, cylindrical as described for A. laetata below. The host-plants are restricted to two related families: Apocynaceae (Carissa, Ichnocarpus, Nerium, Tabernaemontana, Trachelospermum); Asclepiadaceae (Cynanchum, Marsdenia, Metaplexis). Host-plant records in the genus were reviewed by Holloway & Sommerer (1984).

The majority of species is found in the Indo-Australian tropics and subtropics, extending as far east as Fiji and Norfolk Island. There are a few species also in Africa. Some Oriental species were reviewed by Holloway & Sommerer (1984) and some Australasian ones by Holloway (1984c).