Antheraea helferi Moore

Antheraea helferi Moore, in Horsfield & Moore, 1858-59: 397.

Antheraea borneensis Moore, 1892, Ann. Mag. nat. Hist. (6), 9: 451.

Antheraea imperator Watson, 1913, Notes Leyden Mus., 35: 184.

Antheraea helferi javanensis Bouvier, 1930, Bull. Hill. Mus. Witley, 4: 91.

Antheraea helferi borneensis Moore; Allen, 1981: 114; Holloway, 1982: 193; Lampe, 1985: 10.

Diagnosis

Both this and the next species have a black ‘eyelid’ to the hindwing ocellus.

The males of helferi are dull reddish orange, those of diehli orange-yellow; the forewings are less falcate in the latter.

The male forewing submarginal fascia is obscure, double, brown in helferi, prominent, single, black in diehli; the subbasal is more curved, less oblique in diehli. In both sexes the hindwing medial is closely associated with the ocellus in diehli but distanced from it in helferi. Further features are given by Allen (1981) and Holloway (1982).

Taxonomic Notes

Holloway (1982) used borneensis as a subspecific name for all Sundanian material.

This arrangement is followed here but the situation needs further investigation.

Sundanian males are on the whole larger, more suffused with pink over the anterior half of the forewing and have the veins typically picked out darker than the ground colour.

Geographical range

N.E. Himalaya; Sundaland.

Habitat preference

Most specimens have been taken in lowland rainforest but a single male was recorded at 1618m on Bukit Retak, Brunei (Allen, 1981).