Pompelon marginata Herrich-Schäffer

Gynautocera marginata Guérin-Méneville, 1843, Delessert Souv. Voy. Inde 2: 89.

Heterusia acrocyanea Herrich-Schäffer, 1854, Samml. neuer, oder wenig bekannt. ausserreur. Schmett., 1: 79.

Pompelon ampliatum Butler, 1878, Proc. zool. Soc. Lond., 1878: 387.

Pompelon valentula Swinhoe, 1889, Proc. zool. Soc. Lond., 1889: 401.

Pompelon philippensis Druce, 1891, Ann. Mag. nat. Hist. (6), 7: 141.

Pompelon subcyanea Swinhoe, 1892, Cat. east and Aust. Lepid. Heterocera Colln Oxf. Univ. Mus., 1: 71.

Pompelon rotundata Swinhoe, 1892, Cat. east and Aust. Lepid. Heterocera Colln Oxf. Univ. Mus., 1: 72.

Pompelon cynosura Druce, 1894, Ann. Mag. nat. Hist. (6), 14: 24.

Pompelon albocyaneum Semper, 1896-1902, 2: 435.

Pompelon anethusa Snellen, 1903, Tijdschr. Ent., 45: 185.

Pompelon modesta Dohm, 1906, Stettin. Ent. Ztg, 67: 163.

Pompelon perakana Swinhoe, 1906, Ann. Mag. nat. Hist. (7), 18: 407.

Pompelon glenum Jordan, 1907, Gross-Schmett. Erde, 10: 23.

Pompelon albiapicalis Hering, 1922, Arch. Naturgesch., 88A (11): 40.

Pompelon baweana Hering, 1925, Dt. Ent. Z. Iris, 39: 174.

Pompelon marginata Guérin-Méneville; Holloway, 1976: 91.

Diagnosis

The build is relatively delicate and the wings elongate with rounded apices in this large black species with blue irroration. The blue is strong at the hindwing apex, less so at that of the forewing, though tending to extend basad along the veins and at greater length down the costa in the latter. On the underside there is a dull orange spot near the apex of the forewing cell anterior to the stem of the medium vein.

Geographical range

Thailand, Burma, Sundaland, Philippines (Palawan, Mindanao), Sulawesi.

Habitat preference

The species flies by day and is most frequently encountered in disturbed and open areas in lowland forest from the lowlands to about 1500m.

Biology.

The larva was described and illustrated by Piepers & Snellen (1902 [1903]), Yen et al. (2005) and in Plate 9 (below), a larva from Peninsular Malaysia. It is a brownish white with the setae on bluntly conical tubercles, the dorsolateral ones black, those on A1 within large black rectangles. A2 is broadly black on each side ventral to these rectangles. Seen laterally, these black patches are part of a triangular array of marks based on A4–6, that extends obliquely upwards and backwards to A6. The head and T1 are black, the anterior margin of the latter is milky white.

Piepers & Snellen (1902 [1903]) stated that the larvae are agile and leave behind them traces of a viscous secretion.

Robinson et al. (2001) cited several records for Cinnamomum (Lauraceae) as a larval host plant; the larva in Plate 9 was reared from this host also (H.S. Barlow, pers. comm.).

Genitalia:

Other images: