Neopheosia fasciata Moore

Pheosia fasciata Moore, 1888, Proc. zool. Soc. Lond. 1888: 401.

Neopheosia fasciata Moore; Kiriakoff 1968: 183.

Diagnosis

The forewing pattern of black and brown streaks on pale yellow is unmistakable.

Taxonomic Notes

Specimens from Sundaland have the valves of the male genitalia deeper and the gnathal processes more robust than Himalayan ones. Buru males have the ventral process at the base of the uncus roughly half the length of the gnathal processes rather than equal in length.

Geographical range

Himalaya, Taiwan, Sundaland, Buru.

Habitat preference

The species appears to be infrequent in a range of lowland forest types, and has been taken as high as 1618 m on Bukit Retak in Brunei.

Biology

Barlow (1982) gave a brief description of the larva, here augmented by study of a blown larva in the BMNH. The larva is cylindrical and unmodified apart from a prominent slender dorsal horn at the anterior margin of the first abdominal segment. The ground colour is pale green. The head is streaked with dark red and the body has a dorsal series of dark red quadrate marks, narrower but darker and more intense over the thorax, broader, diffuse, striate over the first three abdominal segments, and largest from the fourth abdominal segment backwards. The sides of the thoracic segments are immaculate but the abdominal flanks are ornamented with numerous fine, oblique, red striae commencing from the quadrate marks and running back down the flanks.

The host-plant in India was given by Sevastopulo (1940) as ‘cherry’.