Chalcocelis albiguttatus Snellen

Limacodes albiguttatus Snellen, 1879, Tijdschr. Ent. 22: 118.

Miresa fumifera Swinhoe, 1890, Trans. ent. Soc. Lond. 1890: 195.

Miresa nigriplaga Heylaerts, 1890, Comp. rend. Soc. ent. Belg. 34: 28.

Miresa sanguineomaculata Heylaerts, 1890, Ibid., 34:28.

Altha pulchrimacula Hulstaert, 1924, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (9) 13: 139.

Chalcocelis albiguttata Snellen; Hering, 1931: 686.

Diagnosis

The female can be confused with Chalcoscelides castaneipars as discussed for the latter. The male is distinguished from other similar sized blackish species by the black circle on the forewing mentioned in the generic description. Specimens from Sundaland and Sulawesi have a prominent setose lobe centrally on the valve as illustrated and the valve apex is triangular. Specimens from New Guinea and Queensland have the setose lobe vestigial and the apex acute or with only a vestige of the dorsal subapical angle. The name hemistaura Lower (= nephrochrysa Lower) is available for this eastern form at subspecific level. Material from Saleyer, near Sulawesi, is intermediate. Material from Mindanao and Luzon in the Philippines also has the valves with the setose lobe absent or virtually so, and the valve tapering to a simple point, but C. wilemani West, with a “female-coloured” male, has genitalia much as in typical albiguttatus: the status of Philippines taxa requires further investigation.

Geographical Range

S. Thailand, Sundaland, Sulawesi; Moluccas, New Guinea, Queensland, ?Philippines.

Habitat Preference

The species has been found to be infrequent in a variety of hill habitat types, mainly rainforest types such as lowland dipterocarp forest, kerangas and coastal forest.

Biology

The eggs, larva and its parasites are described by Kalshoven (1981). The eggs are transparent, flat, almost scale-like, laid singly or in small groups on the host-plant. The larva is convex, ovoid, gelatinous, transparent bluish to yellowish green with five indistinct lighter longitudinal stripes. It is polyphagous, the diet including Cocos (Kalshoven 1981), Coffea (Rubiaceae) and Erythrina (Leguminosae) (Piepers & Snellen 1900), Aleurites (Euphorbiaceae), Eugenia (Myrtaceae), Hydnocarpus (Flacourtiaceae), Acacia (Leguminosae) and Gardenia (Rubiaceae) (Corbett 1932).

Taxonomic Note

The range given for Chalcocelis albiguttatus Snellen embraces a very broad concept of the taxon as indicated in Part 1 and by Cock et al. (1987), the latter with illustration of the variability of the male genitalia from different parts of that range, particularly in the shape of the apex of the valve and in the development of a tuft of hairs on a lobe at about one third to central on the valve costa. Populations east of Sulawesi (the type locality of albiguttatus) have the valve apex tapering and lack a hair tuft, whereas those from Sulawesi westwards have the valve apex with a triangular expansion, together with a hair tuft. The uncus also varies in shape, as described by Solovyev & Witt (2009). Only in the Philippines are both conditions found, as discussed in Part 1. Solovyev & Witt (2009) also discussed this variation and described two new species in this complex, C. dydima Solovyev & Witt that extends from N. Thailand to Vietnam, S. China and Hainan I., and C. albor Solovyev & Witt, based on a solitary male from N. Vietnam. Both these taxa have male genitalia of the ‘western’ type discussed above. There is consensus that this complex situation requires careful revision across the whole of the range, but some divergence of opinion over whether the populations defined on what could be relatively minor genital differences (see also Note 24) should be accorded full specific rank.