Brunia antica Walker comb. rev.

Lithosia antica Walker, 1854, List Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus., 2:505.

Lithosia brevipennis Walker, 1854, List Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus., 2: 509.

Lithosia natara Moore, 1859 [1860], Cat. Lepid. Insects Mus. E. Ind. Co., 2: 304.

Lithosia intermixta Walker, 1864, List Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus., 31: 229.

Ilema atrifrons Hampson, 1907, Ann. Mag. nat. Hist. (7), 19: 231 , syn. n.

Eilema kosemponensis Strand, 1917, Arch. Naturgesch., (1916) 82 (A3): 113.

Lithosia horishanella Matsumura, 1927, J. Coll. Agric. Hokkaido Imp. Univ., 19 (1): 64.

Diagnosis

Males have a uniform fawn forewing, sometimes slightly paler along the costa, whereas females have the forewing grey, though not as dark as in B. apicalis Walker, with a pale yellow costa. Both sexes resemble this and some Bornean “Eilema”, so identity should be confirmed by dissection.

Geographical Range

Indian Subregion to China, Ryukyu Is., Chagos Is., Nicobar Is., Sundaland.

Habitat Preference

This is a lowland species, possibly most frequent in coastal vegetation, including mangrove.

Biology

Piepers & Snellen (1904) refer to the larva of natara as feeding on white lichen on citrus near the coast of Java. It is densely covered with blackish and grey-brown hairs, with long black hairs protruding from this. There is a black dorsal stripe with red and ochreous yellow marbling on each side of it. There is also a transverse black band towards the anterior. The body appears somewhat flattened. Pupation is in a dense cocoon, with a period of about ten days for completion. Unpublished records at FRIM note the larva as defoliating Hevea (Euphorbiaceae: rubber), but this needs further investigation, as do records in Yunus & Ho (1980) for ‘E. vacaria’ (?= vicara Walker: see above) for Hevea, Terminalia (Combretaceae) and Theobroma (Sterculiaceae), though these could apply to any of the first three species treated here.

Taxonomic Note

The identity of this species was commented on by Inoue et al. (1982) and Barnett, Emms & Holloway (1999), but not all type specimens of synonyms of brevipennis according to Hampson (1900) had been dissected. Dissection has revealed that the Sri Lankan taxa punctifera Hampson and fuscipes Hampson, both based on females, are distinct (but best retained in “Eilema” until their placement is investigated further), stat. rev., as is Hampson’s ab. 1 from Sandakan (sandakana Draudt; see *“Eilema” sandakana Draudt stat. n.). However, atrifrons Hampson from the Nicobar Is. has male genitalia typical of antica.

Genitalia: