Chrysartona Swinhoe

Type species: stipata Walker, India, Burma.

Synonyms (subgenera): Chrystarmanna Efetov (type species sikkima Efetov, N.E. India); Chrystremewana Efetov (type species birmana Efetov, Burma, N.E. India).

This genus was reviewed by Efetov (2006), with additional notes by Efetov & Tarmann (2008) on subgenus Chrystarmanna to which the Bornean species belongs. Efetov & Tarmann (2008: 7) placed the genus in the Artonini, as there is a third single medial spur on the hindtibia, only found in Artonini (Efetov & Tarmann, 1996). The facies is distinctive as described for the Bornean species. Much of the body and forewing bases have a metallic sheen (green, blue, golden or coppery). The male antennae are bipectinate, those of the female are simple.

The male genitalia have a single, narrow, well sclerotised uncus. The valves have the costa and sacculus well sclerotised, the latter usually with a distal process. The lamina between usually has a more or less straight distal margin and is often triangular. The aedeagus vesica contains several slender cornuti, variable in size, but some can be more than half as long as the aedeagus.

The female genitalia have a strongly or weakly sclerotised praebursa (ductus), separated by a constriction from the ovate to rounded bursa from which the ductus seminalis arises basally.

The genus contains thirteen species, most found in the mainland Asian tropics, but with two endemic to Java and a further two to the east: variata Swinhoe (Kai, Sumba, Moluccas, New Guinea); explorata Hering (New Guinea). Efetov (2006) and Efetov & Tarmann (2008) recognised three subgenera. Of the Sundanian and easterly species, only one, hausmanni Efetov (Java), belongs to the typical subgenus. The rest, with two mainland Asian species, make up subgenus Chrystarmanna Efetov, where the valves of the male genitalia are deeply divided into a narrow costal and cucullar section and a shortened and variably modified and robust saccular section. The uncus has a central bulge. In females, the sclerotised praebursa is larger than the corpus bursae, the latter being reduced relative to the condition in the other subgenera.

Yen & Fan (1995) illustrated the larva in Taiwan, identifying the species as the type species (but see below). The thoracic and anal regions are orange with black patches. The flanks are white, the general ground colour that, over the dorsal half of the rest of the body, is banded transversely with black. Each segment has a broad, but centrally broken band that is flanked by one narrower band on each side. The white band between each such segmental sequence is stippled with black, but the other white bands are immaculate. The primary setae are on slight tubercles, the lateral setae being long and white.

Yen & Fan (1995) recorded stipata as feeding as a larva on Ampelopsis and Cayratia (Vitaceae); Efetov (2006) indicated that the species was not stipata but nevertheless belonged to Chrysartona.