Albara reversaria Walker

Albara reversaria Walker, 1866, List Specimens lepid. Insects Colln. Br. Mus., 35: 1567.

Albara opalescens Warren, 1897, Novit. zool., 4: 12.

Albara griseotincta Wileman, 1914, Entomologist, 47: 268.

Albara horishana Matsumura, 1921, Thousand Ins. Japan Suppl., 4: 948.

Albara reversaria Walker; Holloway, 1976: 92

Diagnosis

Both species in this genus are purplish grey with straight postmedials (absent in Paralbara), but reversaria is much paler with dark fasciae, rather than pale-edged ones.

Geographical range

Sumatra, Borneo, Peninsular Malaysia; N.E. Himalaya, Taiwan (ssp. opalescens).

Habitat preference

The species is infrequent in lowland and lower montane forests extending as high as 1200m on G. Api and at Bundu Tuhan on G. Kinabalu and to 1465m on Bukit Retak in Brunei.

Biology

The larva of the Taiwanese subspecies was illustrated by Wang (1995). It is a speckled pale grey, the thoracic segments slightly swollen, the third with an irregular transverse dark brown blotch dorsally, with a pair of black dots anterior to it on T2 and a trapezoid array of four posterior to it on A1. A3 has oblique broad, lateral brown bars that extend up the flanks towards the anterior to be separated dorsally by a narrow band of the ground colour.

There is a small brown trapezoid dorsally just anterior to the suranal process.

The host-plant recorded was Myrica (Myricaceae).

Genitalia: