Ectropis bhurmitra Walker

Boarmia bhurmitra Walker, 1860, List Specimens lepid. Insects Colln Br. Mus., 21: 381.

Boarmia diffusaria Walker, 1860, Ibid. 21: 381.

Scioglyptis semifascia Warren, 1897, Novit. zool., 4: 248.

Ectropis sabulosa Warren, 1897, Ibid. 4: 99.

Heterostegane semifasciata Warren, 1900, Ibid. 7 :111.

Ectropis brevifasciata Wileman, 1912, Entomologist, 45: 69.

Ectropis bhurmitra Walker; Sato, 1992, established synonymy.

Diagnosis

This and Ectropis longiscapia Prout are very similar in appearance, with brown fasciation on a yellowish fawn ground. E. longiscapia Prout is slightly larger, more strongly fasciated and irrorated with brown. E. bhurmitra is a lowland species, E. longiscapia being montane. They may be distinguished most readily on genitalic characters, the male longiscapia having a prominent cornutus in the aedeagus vesica, and the female having a large, convolute pouch associated with the ostium; both features are lacking in bhurmitra.

Geographical range

Indo-Australian tropics from India and Taiwan to Queensland and Solomons.

Habitat preference

E. bhurmitra* has been taken infrequently in a range of lowland forest types, mostly at below 300m. Sato (1992) did not record it from Borneo.

Biology

The larva was described by Bell (MS). The body is cylindrical, dull, pale yellow above, fuscous below, suffused with pink above and rust colour towards the posterior and on T1. There is a double lateral black band above a whitish spiracular zone. The setae arise from black dots.

Pupation is in a silken cell woven between leaves.

Host-plants have been recorded in many plant families (Singh, 1953; Browne, 1968; Bell, MS; unpublished IIE records): Bombacaceae (Bombax); Combretaceae (Terminalia); Compositae (Artemisia); Dipterocarpaceae (Shorea); Euphorbiaceae (Aleurites, Phyllanthus); Gramineae; Leguminosae (Abbizzia, Cassia, Indigofera, Leucaena); Liliaceae (Allium); Myrtaceae (Eugenia, Syzygium); Opiliaceae (Champereia); Proteaceae (Grevillea); Rubiaceae (Anthocephalus, Coffea); Rutaceae (Citrus); Sapindaceae (Schleichera); Sterculiaceae (Theobroma); Taxodiaceae (Taxodium); Verbenaceae (Gmelina, Tectona).

Taxonomic Note

Sato (2007a) revised the genus Ectropis Hübner in Indonesia. He indicated that the account of the larva of bhurmitra from Bell (MS) in Part 11 was atypical of Ectropis and therefore probably based on a misidentification. He described the true larva from Taiwan (Sato, 1986; as brevifasciata Wileman). The larva was also described and illustrated by Leong (2010f). It is cryptic, twig-like, mottled in shades of brown and grey-brown, typical of the genus, resembling the photograph of the larva of the generic type species in South (1961: plate 125). The host plant was a species of Terminalia (Combretaceae). The larva has been reared in Borneo and illustrated by Chung et al. (2008) from Octomeles (Datiscaceae).

Genitalia: