Diomea rotundata Walker

Diomea rotundata Walker, [1858] 1857, List Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus., 13: 1110.

Diagnosis

This and the next two species are very similar, and identification is best confirmed from the male genitalia. The wings are a steely greyish black, marked with black, including prominent discal spots and sinuous postmedials consisting of lunules in the spaces, concave distad, with the acute junctions of the lunules tipped white (though this is not always evident). There is often a larger white mark on the forewing costa in this position, and sometimes a slight one at the hindwing dorsum though never as pronounced as in.

Biology

Bell (MS) reared the species in India. The shape is typical of fungusfeeding noctuids. The prolegs of A3 and A4 are lacking, the rest strong but short. The whole larva is dirty white with indistinct pink marbling and a pink spot dorsally at the rear of each segment. The head has glossy tubercles but no setae; primary setae are present on the body. The young, thin larva is transparent, glossy, but has conspicuous black setae on chalazae. It lies looped in a ‘Z’ on the lower surface of the bracket fungus growing on old wood. This lower surface is white, spore-bearing being on long white filaments or gills. Pupation is on the tree or the fungus in a tight-fitting, semiovoid cocoon that incorporates chewed rotten wood or fungus.

Genitalia: