Darna (Oxyplax) pallivitta Moore comb. n
Miresa pallivitta Moore, 1877, Ann. Mag. nat. Hist. (4) 20: 93.
Diagnosis
The bronzy brown forewings traversed by an oblique white fascia are distinctive. The valve of the male genitalia lacks a costal process.
Geographical Range
China, Taiwan, Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Java, ?Borneo.
Biology
Piepers & Snellen (1900) described the larva of this species as ochracea but their material (RMNH, Leiden) has been examined and determined as pallivitta. It has two rows of moderately long spined tubercles which, like the body, are marbled with black and white on light grey. There is a dorsal white band, and sometimes yellow or light orange flecks on the flanks anteriorly. The head is yellow. The larva leaves a viscous trail over the leaves as it progresses. The cocoon is light brown or lilac, enveloped in coarse silk of similar colour. The host-plants recorded were Adenostemma (Compositae), Breynia (Euphorbiaceae), Areca (Palmae) and Ficus (Moraceae).
Taxonomic Notes
Hering (1931) recorded [D. ochracea Moore] from Borneo but the record is more likely to have been of pallivitta or of the undescribed species (slide 729) from the Peninsula, larger, much darker, with the oblique fascia more marginal. The source of Hering’s record has not been investigated.
Nagamine & Epstein (2007) described the establishment of *Oxyplax *pallivitta on the island of Hawaii and gave a detailed, illustrated description of its biology, in particular noting details of the early instars. The first instar has elongate tubercles that later develop into urticating scoli with secondary setae, rather than being lost in later instars, represented by setae only, or retained as hairy tubercles as occurs in other limacodids with first instar tubercles. Larvae from the sixth instar on have delayed expression of SD2 verrucae close to the spiracles on A2 to A7, and the larvae can go through between eight and eleven instars, the highest number equalling the maximum recorded for the family. The first instar is pale yellow with a darker red-brown area centrally. Later instars develop a variegated pattern of black patches on lighter orange brown, contrasting with the lighter yellow or sometimes pink scoli. The dorsum is broadly black, with a fine pale dorsal line along the central segments of the abdomen that coincides with a flatly triangular area of the lighter orange brown along the flanks. Anterior and posterior to this, the segments are crossed by a series of similarly fine pale lines. The paler triangular area on the flanks in Oxyplax is also seen in Orthocraspeda and Ploneta; it may be a synapomorphy for the three genera (see the previous note).
Nagamine & Epstein (2007) noted that s had non-feeding first instar larvae in common with other limacodids that have spines on scoli or verrucae in later instars. They noted a tendency for spiny limacodids to lay eggs in clusters, and non-feeding by hatchlings might therefore be an adaptation for avoiding egg cannibalism. The first instar are gregarious.
The hosts recorded in Hawaii were palms (Chrysalidocarpus, Cocos, Rhapis) but also Cordyline and Dracaena (Agavaceae).
Genitalia:
