Hippotion velox Fabricius

**

Diagnosis

The multiple postmedial of the forewing has a more sinuous course than in other Hippotion and Theretra taxa.

The dark discal spot has a pale halo; there are two pale streaks along the veins subapically as in the next species.

The abdomen has a row of oblique white flecks subdorsally; in celerio they are straight.

No other Bornean species in the group has these white flecks.

Geographical range

Indo-Australian tropics to Fiji and New Caledonia.

Habitat preference

The species is infrequent in Borneo but has been taken as high as 2600m on G. Kinabalu.

Biology

Bell & Scott (1937) described the larva.

The final instar occurs in two forms, green and dark.

The green form is bright grass green with obscure yellow dots and a neutral dorsal stripe over the abdominal segments.

The ocellar markings are longitudinally oval, yellow, irregularly centred with plum colour, situated dorsolaterally on A1. The horn is violet.

The dark form is greyish brown with broken pale yellowish dorsolateral stripes; the ocellar are markings centred brown, bordered with pale yellow then black; there are lateral oblique stripes on the abdominal segments.

Similar dimorphism occurs in Java (Dupont & Roepke, 1941). Recorded host-plants (Bell & Scott, 1937; Dupont & Roepke, 1941; Pholboon, 1965; Robinson, 1975; Moulds, 1984) are: Alocasia (Araceae); Brassica (Cruciferae); Ipomoea (Convolvulaceae); Pisonia (Nyctaginaceae); Morinda (Rubiaceae).