Macroglossum corythus Walker

Macroglossa corythus Walker, 1856, List Specimens lepid. Insects Colln. Br. Mus. 8: 92.

Macroglossa luteata Butler, 1875, Proc. zool. Soc. Lond., 1875: 241.

Macroglossum corythus Walker; Rothschild & Jordan, 1903; 661.

Diagnosis

The forewing is much more uniform than in other species except the next two, crossed with weakly darker, sinuous fasciae.

Distinction from the next species is best done on genitalic characters as discussed below.

Taxonomic Notes

Most Oriental material is referable to ssp. luteata.

Geographical range

Indo-Australian tropics to New Caledonia; recorded from the Cocos-Keeling Is. (Holloway, 1983).

Habitat preference

All three recent specimens have been taken in upper montane forest (1500m+) on Bukit Retak and Bukit Pagon, all in Brunei.

Biology

The larva has been described by Bell & Scott (1937) and Dupont & Roepke (1941). The latter refer only to one colour form, bright green, speckled yellow, with a violet-bordered white dorsolateral band, and bright yellow spots laterally on the thorax and anterior abdominal segments, and white ones laterally on posterior abdominal segments.

The upcurved horn is green, granulated with yellow.

Bell & Scott refer to a shining, tubercular, saddle-shaped marking on T1, and to chocolate brown and black variants, but no green form.

The brown form from Hong Kong is illustrated in above.

Recorded host-plants (Bell & Scott; Dupont & Roepke; Barlow, 1982; Holloway, 1983; Miyata, 1983; Bascombe, in litt.) are: Strychnos (Loganiaceae); Guettarda, Morinda, Paederia (Rubiaceae).

Genitalia: