Lophoptera squammigera Guenée

Lophoptera squammigera Guenée, 1852, Hist. nat. Insectes, Spec. gen.Lepid. 7: 55.

Lophoptera costata Moore, 1885, Lepid. Ceylon 3: 123, syn. n.

Lophoptera costata Moore; Holloway, 1976: 19 (part).

Diagnosis

This species is distinguished from the next two in their descriptions, but basically has a pale longitudinal zone to the forewing that is grey rather than white at the anterior edge as a rule, and grades away more gently towards the dorsum.

Taxonomic Notes

This species belongs to a complex that is elucidated in the accounts of the next two.

Geographical range

Oriental tropics to Sundaland and Sulawesi.

The ‘New Holland’ type locality of squammigera may be spurious (no specimens were located in the Australian National Insect Collection) though single specimens in the BMNH from Timor and the Bismarcks (New Hanover) may indicate that the species is present but rare in Australasia.

Habitat preference

The species has been recorded from upper montane forest on G. Mulu and Bukit Pagon, and at 1200m on G. Kinabalu.

Single specimens have been taken from alluvial forest, low altitude forest on limestone and mixed dipterocarp forest.

Biology

Gardner (1948a) described the larva as pale green with no cuticular pigment, and 35mm long.

The crochets are homoideous.

The Indian host-plants are Mallotus (Gardner 1948a) and Briedelia in the Euphorbiaceae, Shorea in the Dipterocarpaceae and Grewia in the Tiliaceae (Mathur 1942).

Genitalia: