Episparis costistriga Walker

Amphigonia costistriga Walker, 1864, J. Linn. Soc. (Zool.), 7: 184.

Episparis sora Swinhoe, 1889, Proc. zool. Soc. Lond

Episparis costistriga Walker; Holloway, 1976: 39.

Diagnosis

This and Episparis exprimens Walker are similar in facies, but exprimens Walker. has extreme mauve highlights, particularly at the margins of the wings, that define a diagnostic brown semicircle at the anterior half of the forewing margin and emphasise the smoother, less angular submarginal on the hindwing. The hindwing angle is much more produced in costistriga.

Geographical range

Himalaya, Sundaland, Balabac.

Habitat preference

The species is often abundant in lowland forest, including secondary forest and softwood plantations (Chey, 1994), and occurs more infrequently up 1930m.

Biology

Mitragyna (Rubiaceae) has been recorded as a larval host (Robinson et al. 2001).

Taxonomic Note

The larva of E. costistriga was reared by Chung et al. (2009a) from Neolamarckia (Rubiaceae) and illustrated, together with a freshly emerged adult. The larva is a bright green with a paler green head that has a pair of black dots dorsally, enclosed in ‘spectacles’ of pale creamy yellow. The body has prominent dorsolateral bands of this cream colour, squared off by a transverse bar on A8. Further transverse bars occur at the posterior of T3, A2, A4 and A7, and there are black dots at the interior edges of the longitudinal bands in the centre of each segment.

Genitalia: