Cyclosia macularia Guérin-Méneville

Gynautocera macularia Guérin-Méneville, 1843, Delessert Souv. Voy. Inde 2: 83.

Pintia metachloros Walker, 1854, List Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus., 2: 281.

Cyclosia tenebrosa Walker, 1862, J. Proc. Linn. Soc. (Zool.), 6: 96, syn. n.

Cyclosia castigata Walker, [1865] 1864, List Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus., 31: 115.

Pintia cyanea Butler, 1883, Ann. Mag. nat. Hist. (5), 12: 160.

Cyclosia phonia Swinhoe, 1901, Ann. Mag. nat. Hist. (7), 8: 124.

Cyclosia purpurea Jordan, 1907, Gross-Schmett. Erde, 10: 19.

Cyclosia snelleni Jordan, 1907, Gross-Schmett. Erde, 10: 20.

Cyclosia violetta van Eecke, 1920, Zool. Meded. Leiden, 5: 112.

Cyclosia transita Hering, 1922, Arch. Naturgesch., 88A (11): 30.

Image of Cyclosia macularia Guérin-Méneville ♂ — ♂

Diagnosis

There is marked sexual dimorphism in this species, and two forms of the female also occur in Sundaland. Males have brownish black forewings with a variably developed paler band that curves from the costa at two thirds round towards the tornus. The hindwings are mostly an iridescent metallic blue, with the blackish colour along the costa and variably on the distal margin. Females of one form are black with white markings and areas as follows: submarginal rows of spots in the spaces; a broad band in the position of that on the male forewing broken by black on the veins; the basal three-quarters of the hindwing. The second form has white only on the forewing (though there may be submarginal spots in the hindwings); some specimens can have all white markings on the forewing further reduced. These female forms are probably mimetic but appear intermediate between Nyctemera Hübner and Euploea Fabricius. See also the next species.

Taxonomic note. The name tenebrosa Walker is applicable to the blacker form of the female. The holotype (in OUMNH) was stated to be male in the original description. It seems to have been omitted from reviews of Cyclosia and is therefore brought into synonymy here.

Geographical range

Sundaland, Sulawesi.

Habitat preference

A male was taken at light in forest on limestone at 250m on the lower slopes of G. Api. Both sexes have been taken in the lowlands of Brunei. Older material is also from lowland localities.

Biology.

The larva was described by Piepers & Snellen (1902 [1903]) under the synonym metachloros. It is a dirty yellow with three rows of tubercles on each side that are a more intense yellow except the most dorsal ones on A1-3.

Robinson et al. (2001) listed Baccaurea (Euphorbiaceae) and Areca (Palmae) as larval host plants.