Theretra clotho Drury

Sphinx clotho Drury, 1773, Illustr. Ex. Ins., 2: 48.

Theretra clotho Drury; Rothschild & Jordan, 1903: 769.

Diagnosis

See T. boisduvali above.

Geographical range

Japan, S. Korea, Indo-Australian tropics to New South Wales and Loyalty Is.

Habitat preference

This is a common, predominantly lowland species.

During the Mulu survey almost all specimens were taken in regenerating alluvial forest beside a river.

Biology

The larva has been described by Bell & Scott (1937) and Dupont & Roepke (1941). Early instars are similar to those of other species, with the characteristic markings developing as growth progresses.

Again there are green and reddish brown forms of the mature larva.

The green form has a dark green dorsolateral line over the abdominal segments; within it are the ocellar markings: large on A1, dark green, ringed yellow and striped with blue; and much smaller, longitudinally oval, pale yellow patches from A2 to A7. In the reddish brown form there is a dark dorsolateral line through the ocelli, and oblique lateral stripes.

The anterior ocelli are reddish brown, striped and ringed with yellow; the posterior pale yellow ocelli are thinly ringed with purplish.

The horn is purplish brown, thick, downcurved.

Recorded host-plants (Bell &. Scott 1937; Dupont & Roepke, 1941; Pholboon, 1965; Miyata, 1983; Moulds, 1984) are: Amorphophallus, Colocasia (Araceae); Begonia (Begoniaceae); Dillenia (Dilleniaceae); Leea (Leeaceae); Hibiscus (Malvaceae); Fuchsia (Onagraceae); Dendrocnide, Pipturus (Urticaceae); Cayratia, Cissus, Parthenocissus, Vitis (Vitidaceae).

Taxonomic Note

Vaglia et al. (2010) described a distinct subspecies of T. clotho from the Philippines, T. vincenti Vaglia & Liyous, but treated more easterly populations (Buru to Queensland and the Solomons) as distinct: T. celata Butler, placing babarensis Eitschberger as a subspecies. They also noted that the New Caledonian representative, lifuensis Rothschild, had been reinstated as a good species earlier (Lachlan, 2004). The biology of clotho in Singapore has been documented by Leong, Shunari & Harvey-Samuel (2010). Two brown form larvae were illustrated as described in Part 3, one with a row of lateral ocelli posterior to the large one on A1, and one without such a row. A green form larva lacking lateral ocelli was also illustrated. The host plant was Cissus (recorded in Part 3 also).