Delgamma pangonia Guenée
Bendis pangonia Guenée, 1852, Hist. Nat. Insectes, Spec. gén. Lépid. 7: 214.
Naxia calorifica Walker, 1858, List Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus., 14: 1406.
Delgamma sanctae Prout, 1927, Trans. ent. Soc. London, 75: 223.
Diagnosis
The caramel brown wings with straight fasciae separating off a marginal area with pale mauve suffusion are distinctive; the anterior part of the forewing marginal area incorporates a lens-shaped area of ground colour and the costa and a few smaller patches posterior to it. The male has an elongate hyaline area near the anterior of the hindwing between veins M1 and M2 (Zilli, 2000a; see also pp. 144, 264).
Geographical range
Sao Thome, West Africa, Indo-Australian tropics east to ?New Guinea and Queensland. Zilli (2000a) discussed variation over this range.
Habitat preference
The species is rare in Borneo, two specimens taken during the Mulu survey being from 150m and 1000m on the Mulu transect, with an older specimen in BMNH labelled as from the Baram area nearby. A fourth specimen was taken by S.J. Willott in lowland forest at 170m near the Danum Valley Field Centre, and a fifth was from 1618m on Bukit Retak in Brunei. Further older material in BMNH is from lowland localities: Bidi in Sarawak; Samarinda and in the vicinity of Pontianak in Kalimantan.
Biology
The larva was described by Bell (MS). It is generally ophiusine in shape but lacks tubercles on A8. Prolegs are absent from A3 and reduced on A4. The head is white with a pinkish tinge, reticulated with brown and banded maroon. The body has a pale grey ground, marbled and dotted brown, some of this forming vague longitudinal bands. A1 has a large, circular, fuscous patch dorsally, bordered behind by a slight yellowish transverse ridge, and laterally by blackish rufous marks; this segment is often held humped with the patch at the top.
Pupation is in a light cocoon within a cell of leaves or on the ground. The pupa has a bluish white bloom.
The host plant was Connarus (Connaraceae).
Genitalia:
