Catoria sublavaria Guenée

Boarmia sublavaria Guenée, 1857, Hist. nat. Ins., Spec. Gen. Lep. 9: 256.

Catoria sublavaria Guenée; Prout, 1929: 139-140, describes subspecies.

Diagnosis

This is the moist lightly marked of the Bornean species, flecked and fasciated pale brownish grey, the discal spots somewhat darker.

Geographical Range

Oriental tropics, New Guinea, Bismarck Is.

Habitat Preference

Four specimens have been taken in recent surveys, two in wet heath forest in the G. Mulu National Park, one at 900m in lower montane forest on G. Api, and the fourth at 1618m on Bukit Retak, Brunei. This kerangas/ montane distribution type was noted by Holloway (1984 a) and is not infrequent in the Ennominae.

Biology

The larva (Bell, MS) is cylindrical, a shining black with a faint greenish tinge. There is a large cream-coloured, spiracular patch on A5 and sometimes one on T1. There is a subspiracular white line on A5 that may extend forward to A4 and A3. The larva rests slightly curved on a leaf-edge, stalk or twig, or sticks out at 45 degrees from the substrate, twig-like. Pupation is in a silken cell on the ground or between two leaves. The host-plant recorded by Bell was Alseodaphne (Lauraceae). The larva has also been reared from Excoecaria (Euphorbiaceae) in the Andamans (unpublished IIE records).

Genitalia: