Cleora alienaria Walker

Boarmia alienaria Walker, 1860, List Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus. 21: 370.

Boarmia gelidaria Walker, 1863, Ibid., 26: 1537.

Chogada rasanaria Swinhoe, 1915, Ann. Mag. nat. Hist. (8), 16: 184.

Cleora alienaria fumipennis Prout, 1929, Novit. zool., 35: 70.

Diagnosis

This, C. concentraria Snellen and C. pendleburyi Prout are somewhat similar in general appearance.

C. concentraria is distinguished by the less crenulated postmedials, that of the hindwing being distinctively angled. The discal spot of the forewing is more clearly defined in alienaria than in C. pendleburyi, and the forewing postmedial of the latter is generally less angled. C. pendleburyi has a more variegated appearance as a rule. The male genitalia are diagnostic, and dissection is recommended where identity is unclear on external features.

Geographical Range

Indian Subregion to Sundaland and Lesser Sundas as far east as Timor. On Christmas I. (Indian Ocean): ssp. fumipennis.

Habitat Preference

There is only a single Bornean specimen in the BMNH collections, a male from Tenom in the lowlands of Sabah. However, the species is being recorded in some abundance from plantations of Acacia mangium and Paraserianthes falcataria (Leguminosae) in the lowlands of Sabah (Chey, Speight & Holloway, 1993).

Biology

The larva has been reared from Paraserianthesby Chey Vun Khen and staff at the Forest Research Centre, Sepilok, Sabah. It is leaf-green, robust, with fine linear marbling. On A2 there is a pair of brown tubercles dorsolaterally, with a narrow, lenticular, transverse white bar anterior to them. The white bar is divided centrally by a black triangle. Prout (1929 b) noted a host-plant record from ‘Cinnamonea’, presumably Cinnamomum (Lauraceae), and D. Stüning (in litt.) has reared the species from Sambucus (Caprifoliaceae) in N. Thailand.

Genitalia: