Dudusa synopla Swinhoe sp. rev.

Dudusa synopla Swinhoe, 1907, Ann. Mag. nat. Hist. (7) 19: 205.

Dudusa synopla Swinhoe; Kiriakoff 1968: 22, as synonym of the younger name, *fumosa

• Matsumura.

Dudusa nobilis Walker, sensu Holloway 1976: 55.

Diagnosis

See Dudusa vethi Snellen stat. rev.

Geographical range

Indian Subregion, Burma, Sumatra, Borneo.

Habitat preference

Only two specimens have been taken, one in hill dipterocarp forest at 300 m in Ulu Temburong, Brunei, and one in tall upper montane forest at 1930 m on G. Kinabalu.

Biology

Bell (1935) published an account of the life history of this species but identified it as nobilis; the illustrations of the adult indicate that it is in fact synopla. The head of the larva is brownish red, the surface of the body smooth, dull, with black-ended yellow spines on each segment, the four most anterior and posterior being larger than the rest. The spines are much longer dorsally than laterally. The body colour is pale yellow with a red collar and red on the prolegs and clasper. The second and third thoracic segments are dorsally, anteriorly, velvety black (cf. Gaede’s description of a Tarsolepis larva, above). The spiracular area has longitudinal black streaks and there is a whitish subspiracular band. The larvae are found high up on trees of Schleichera trijuga (Sapindaceae) in India. They lie on the undersides of the leaves, eating the mature ones when in later instars. They descend to pupate below the surface of the soil in an earthen cell that is smoothed inside but not lined with silk. Bell recorded a period of eight months from larvae going down to the emergence of the adult.

Genitalia: