Chalciope mygdon Cramer 

Noctua mygdon Cramer, [1777] 1779, Uitlandsche Kapellen, 2: 94.

Noctua triangulum Fabricius, 1787, Mantissa Insectorum, 2: 145.

Chalciope mygdonias Hübner, 1823 [1816], Verz. bekannter Schmett. p. 268.

Chalciope mygdon Cramer; Holloway, 1976: 31; Kobes, 1985: 48.

Diagnosis

The forewings are marked with black triangles as in Trigonodes species, but these fill more of the wing, make contact with the dorsum, and the costal band expands and darkens distad where it ends in a sharp boundary that bisects the apex.

Geographical range

Oriental Region to Sundaland.

Habitat preference

The species occurs in similar disturbed and open habitats to T. hyppasia Cramer.

Biology

The larva (Okinawa I.) was illustrated by Tanahara & Tanahara (2001a). It is a very slender semi-looper with the prolegs on A3 lost and those on A4 vestigial; the section of the body between the functional prolegs and the thorax is much extended. The colour is pale bluish grey with fine, darker longitudinal lines. These lines are in more intense groups (or bands) subdorsally and dorsolaterally, the dorsolateral group with its penultimate line ventrally (just above the spiracles) particularly strong in places. The subdorsal group is shaded irregularly darker between A1 and A3, and has a dark dot just ventral to it on A1. Similar pairs of dots occur from A5 backwards, increasing in size to A8.

The host plant recorded was Phyllanthus (Euphorbiaceae). The Australasian sister-species, C. alcyona Druce, was noted to feed on Oryza (Gramineae) by Robinson (1975). The record of Rhynchosia (Leguminosae) for the genus in Barlow (1982) and Robinson et al. (2001) is probably referable to Trigonodes, as species of this genus have been referred to Chalciopein the past (e.g. Mathur, 1942).

Genitalia: