Helicoverpa assulta Guenée

Heliothis assulta Guenee, 1852, Hist. nat. Insectes, Spec. gen. Lepid. 6:178.

Helicoverpa assulta Guenee; Hardwick, 1965: 120 (full synonymy); Holloway, 1976: 8.

Diagnosis

See Helicoverpa armigera Hubner.

Taxonomic notes

Hardwick noted two subspecies. The typical race flies in the Indo-Australian tropics and ssp. afra Hardwick in the African tropics.

Geographical range

Old World (including Pacific) tropics.

Habitat preference

This is probably a species of open, cultivated habitats but, like its congener, appears rare in Borneo. Two specimens from Seria, a coastal locality in Brunei, and one from 1200m on G. Kinabalu (Bundu Tuhan) represent the only recent material seen.

Biology

The adults are migratory. The larva has been recorded only on Solanaceae (Hardwick, 1965; Matthews, 1988) such as Lycopersicon, Nicotiana, Physalis and Solanum.

Genitalia: