Earias vittella Fabricius

Tinea vittella Fabricius, 1794, Ent. Syst.(3), 2: 293.

Phalaena (Geometra) fabia Stoll, 1781, in Cramer, Papillons exotiques des trois parties du monde, 4: 126, 249, praeocc.

Aphusia speiplena Walker, 1857 [1858], List Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus., 12: 770.

Micra partita Walker, 1865, List Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus., 33: 799.

Earias huegeli Rogenhofer, 1870, Verh. Zool. Bot. Ges. Wien, 20: 872.

Earias vittella Fabricius; Kobes, 1997: 52.

Diagnosis

The green wedge dividing the forewing longitudinally distinguishes this species.

Geographical range

Indo-Australian tropics north to Japan and east to New Caledonia and Fiji.

Habitat preference

The only specimen seen in recent surveys is from disturbed, secondary vegetation in the lowlands of Brunei.

Biology

The life history in India was described by Bell (MS) and Gardner (1947). The larva is cylindrical, stout, and stands up on the prolegs and claspers which are all present but weak. The body is white, dark lilac and orange in colour, shining, the orange as spiracular patches. The hair tubercles of segments T2 and T3 and of A7-10 are more prominent than on the rest of the segments. There is a broad dorsal whitish yellow band from T3 to A8, very irregular, consisting of patches, spots and lines. T1 has a glossy blackish collar. Tubercles of T2 are all orange, but only the dorsal ones of T3 and none on the other segments. The venter is greenish. The setae are prominent, long, fine. Gardner described the larva as generally dark brown with irregular white patches, and with orange spots associated with the setae. He listed diagnostic features between vittella and E. insulana Boisduval, not known in Borneo. The pupa is stout, roundedly conical at the posterior end without cremastral ornamentation. It is formed in a cocoon on a leaf. The cocoon is a semiovoid, slightly peaked dorsally above the vertical emergence slit anteriorly. The larvae live in the fruits of their host-plant, mostly species of Hibiscus but also on other malvaceous plants. Further host records (Pholboon, 1965; Robinson, 1975; Yunus & Ho, 1980; Zhang, 1994; unpublished IIE records, Robinson et al., 2001), all Malvaceae, include Abelmoschus, Abutilon, Alcea, Gossypium, Hibiscus, Malachra, Malvastrum, Sida, Thespesia and Urena. Malumphy & Robinson (2002) recorded the species from Solanum (Solanaceae).

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